Anthropic Has a Strong Legal Case Against Trump’s DoD

Anthropic’s lawyers probably spent the weekend preparing a lawsuit the company said it would file against the Department of Defense for designating the Claude AI maker as a “supply chain risk” and cutting off commercial ties to “protect national security.” The designation followed Anthropic’s request for special assurances its tech wouldn’t be used for fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance. (Read a full account of the affair here.)

The Anthropic lawyers’ hard work is likely to pay off. Several unaffiliated lawyers following the dispute tell me the company stands a good chance of winning a lawsuit to reverse the department’s decision. 

That’s because the laws around supply chain risk are intended for foreign companies, not U.S. companies like Anthropic. The laws are meant to prevent outright sabotage and spying, which Anthropic hasn’t committed. The Department could have severed ties with Anthropic without resorting to the designation, the lawyers say.

To be sure, the DoD, which refers to itself as the Department of War these days, strengthened its own chances in several ways over the past week. For one, the department walked back an earlier threat, saying its decision only bars the use of Claude in military contracts, rather than prohibiting military contractors from “any commercial use” of Claude.