Anthropic sues Defense Department over supply-chain risk designation | TechCrunch

Last day to exhibit your breakthrough to 10,000+ tech leaders at Disrupt is on Oct 2. Book Exhibit Table Now. Disrupt doors open Oct. 13. Get your pass and bring someone with you at 50% off. REGISTER NOW. 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. Whil