Judge suggests Pentagon aimed to 'punish' Anthropic, not safeguard national security

A federal judge in San Francisco criticised the Pentagon on Tuesday for attempting to blacklist Anthropic after a conflict over its AI.

"It appears to be a move to hobble Anthropic," Judge Rita Lin mentioned at a hearing on Tuesday to determine whether the government's "supply chain risk" label would hold during Anthropic's lawsuit against the Department of War.

On March 3, Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth officially informed Anthropic that he was marking the company and its products as a supply chain risk, marking the first time such a label was given to a US company. 

The designation effectively puts Anthropic, the developer of Claude, on a governmental blacklist, limiting its contracts and the permissible uses of its technology.

Before this action, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei openly stated that he would not comply with Hegseth's demand for the Pentagon to gain unrestricted access to its AI models "for any legal purpose." 

Amodei expressed concern that a contract with such terms could lead to misuse in monitoring Americans or deploying Anthropic's AI in fully autonomous weapons before safety could be ensured.

Lin, known for handling other significant tech cases, remarked that classifying Anthropic as a supply chain risk was "disturbing" since such a designation is usually aimed at "adversaries planning to destabilise US government tech systems."

"DOW could simply avoid using Claude," Lin noted, referencing The Department of War, the name preferred by the Trump administration for the Pentagon. "They seem to have gone beyond this, appearing to want to penalize Anthropic."

Lin pointed out that a separate order from President Donald Trump, posted on Truth Social, directing every federal agency to stop using Anthropic within six months, was so extensive that it might impact agencies well beyond national security matters.

"That could mean even the National Endowment for the Arts using Claude to develop its website," she pointed out.

Anthropic took legal action to prevent Hegseth's move and Trump's order. Tuesday's hearing was scheduled for the judge to consider if the ban should be lifted until the trial begins.

In court documents, Anthropic stated that the designation posed a "risk of losing hundreds of millions of dollars soon" due to the uncertainty surrounding its effect on defense contractors that also use Claude.