Anthropic has made good on its promise to challenge the Department of Defense (DOD) in court after the agency labeled it a supply-chain risk late last week.
The Claude maker filed two complaints against the DOD on Monday in California and Washington, D.C., after a weeks-long conflict between Anthropic and the DOD over whether the military should have unrestricted access to Anthropic’s AI systems. Anthropic had two firm red lines: It didn’t want its technology to be used for mass surveillance of Americans and didn’t believe it was ready to power fully autonomous weapons with no humans making targeting and firing decisions.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth argued that the Pentagon should have access to AI systems for “any lawful purpose” and that it shouldn’t be limited by a private contractor.
A supply-chain risk label is usually reserved for foreign adversaries and requires any company or agency that does work with the Pentagon to certify that it doesn’t use Anthropic’s models. While several private companies are still working with Anthropic, the firm is poised to lose much of its business within the government.
Anthropic called the DOD’s actions “unprecedented and unlawful” and accuses the administration of retaliation in a complaint filed in San Francisco federal court. “The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech,” the lawsuit reads.
The protected speech Anthropic refers to is its belief about the “limitations of its own AI services and important issues of AI safety,” per the lawsuit. The administration, including Defense Secretary Hegseth and President Trump, have criticized Anthropic and its CEO Dario Amodei as “woke” and “radical” over the company’s calls for stronger AI safety and transparency measures.
In the lawsuit, Anthropic argued the government doesn’t have to agree with its views or use its products, but it cannot employ the power of the state to punish or suppress Anthropic’s expression.
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