AI firm Anthropic, developer of the AI software Claude, has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging an "unlawful campaign of retaliation." The suit challenges the Department of Defense's decision to label Anthropic a "supply chain risk" following the company's refusal to grant the military unrestricted access to its technology.
Anthropic argues the designation, finalized on March 3, is unprecedented and unlawful, stating the Constitution does not permit the government to punish a company for protected speech. The company asserts that Claude has never been tested for uses such as lethal autonomous warfare or mass surveillance, which were always part of its government contracts.
The lawsuit, filed in California federal court, names multiple government agencies and officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. A brief filed in support of Anthropic by over 30 AI engineers and scientists from OpenAI and Google warns that punishing a leading U.S. AI company could harm national competitiveness in the AI field.