U.S. court rules Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic was unlawful
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A federal court in San Francisco has ruled that the Pentagon unlawfully placed AI company Anthropic on a supply chain risk blacklist. The court determined the Department of Defense violated the First Amendment by acting in retaliation for Anthropic's public criticism of government AI policy. The dispute began in March when negotiations over military use of Anthropic's Claude AI models collapsed. Anthropic sought guarantees against use in autonomous weapons or mass surveillance, while the Pentagon demanded unrestricted access. Anthropic subsequently filed lawsuits in both San Francisco and Washington, D.C., with the D.C. case still pending. As a result, Anthropic technically remains on the blacklist, but the San Francisco ruling is significant ahead of the company's planned IPO this fall. The article notes that such a designation could pose problems as the government expands its AI use and has shown a willingness to act against companies, citing a brief ban on another firm. Information is drawn from CNBC.
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