Anthropic sues US government for calling it a risk. 6 hours ago. Kali HaysTechnology reporter. Reuters. Artificial intelligence (AI) firm Anthropic has filed a first of its kind lawsuit against the US government over claims that it is a “supply chain risk”.. The AI firm’s chief executive Dario Amodei and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth have been publicly rowing due to the company’s refusal to allow the military unfettered use of its AI tools.. The Pentagon retaliated by making Anthropic the first US company to be labelled a “supply chain risk”, but Anthropic said in its lawsuit on Monday against a list of US government agencies that the government’s action was “unprecedented and unlawful”.. A spokesman for the US Department of Defense declined to comment citing a policy on active litigation.. “The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech”, Anthropic wrote. “No federal statute authorizes the actions taken here.”. Anthropic’s lawsuit is against President Donald Trump’s executive office; several government leaders, including Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick; and 16 government agencies, including the Department of War, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Energy.. The Department of War is a secondary name given by Trump for the Department of Defense.. Liz Huston, a spokeswoman for the White House, told the BBC that Anthropic is “a radical left, woke company” attempting to control military activity.. “Under the Trump Administration, our military will obey the United States Constitution – not any woke AI company’s terms of service,” Huston said.. Anthropic argued against this in its legal complaint filed Monday morning in California federal court.. The company said that Hegseth demanded it remove any usage restrictions from its defence contract, despite limitations on “lethal autonomous warfare” and “surveillance of Americans en masse” always having been part of its government contracts.. Anthropic has been used by the US government and military since 2024 and was the first advanced AI company to have its tools deployed in government agencies doing classified work.. ‘Public castigation’. Anthropic said that it did work with Hegseth on revising contract language in order to meet military use needs. While it was nearing a successful negotiation to continue working with the department that would include limitations regarding surveillance and weaponry, those talks were abruptly undercut.. Instead, the Department of Defense “met Anthropic’s attempts at compromise with public castigation”.. As Anthropic was negotiating with defence officials, Trump berated the company as run by “left wing nut jobs” and directed all government agencies to stop using Anthropic tools.. Hegseth quickly followed up on Trump’s announcement by labeling Anthropic a “supply chain risk”, meaning tools like Claude were suddenly considered not sec
