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Anthropic has gone to court to prevent the company from being included in the Pentagon’s national list of “supply chain threats.” This happened a few days after the U.S. Department of Defense sent the company an official letter confirming that it had received this status. The company’s CEO, Dario Amodei, said at the time that Anthropic was ready to defend itself in court.
In the lawsuit filed, the company claims that the decision is illegal and violates the right to freedom of speech, as well as guarantees of due process. “These actions are unprecedented and illegal. The Constitution does not allow the government to use its vast power to punish a company for its protected free speech,” Anthropic said in a statement released to Reuters.
In a comment to Engadget, an Anthropic spokesperson said that “going to court does not change our longstanding commitment to using artificial intelligence to protect national security, but it is a necessary step to protect our business, our customers, and our partners. We will continue to pursue all possible avenues for resolution, including dialog with the government.” The lawsuit describes the government’s actions as an “unprecedented and illegal […] campaign of retaliation”.
The legal confrontation was the culmination of several weeks of tense negotiations between Anthropic and the US authorities. At the end of February, it became known that the US Department of Defense, together with Defense Secretary Pete Hagel, demanded that the company weaken certain protective mechanisms in its artificial intelligence systems. However, its chairman clearly stated that Anthropic would not agree to allow its models to be used for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons.
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When the deadline came on February 27, Dario Amodei did not change his position, prompting Gaget to threaten the company with the status of “supply chain risk.” He also said that the US government could terminate the $200 million contract with Anthropic. On the same day, President Donald Trump ordered all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s technology. Nevertheless, according to the lawsuit, the company agreed to cooperate with the Defense Ministry to organize an organized transition to another AI provider that would be ready to fulfill the government’s requirements.
Amid this situation, Anthropic’s competitor, OpenAI, quickly entered into an agreement with the Defense Ministry. At the time, its CEO Sam Altman stated that the two key principles of the company’s security were the prohibition of internal mass surveillance and mandatory human participation in decision-making on the use of force, including the use of autonomous weapons systems. These were the issues that caused the conflict between the government and Anthropic. Later, OpenAI reiterated its position on surveillance by stipulating in the contract that its AI should not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of US citizens.
However, even after the agreement was signed, tensions arose within OpenAI. The head of robotics hardware Caitlin Kalinowski left the company over the weekend in protest against the contract with the Pentagon.
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