Overview
- Anthropic filed two lawsuits on March 9 in the Northern District of California and the D.C. Circuit seeking to void the Defense Department’s “supply‑chain risk” label and block its enforcement.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued the designation on Feb. 27, triggering a Pentagon six‑month phase‑out of Claude and, alongside President Trump’s directive, a government‑wide halt to agency use.
- The government pressed for access to Claude for “any lawful use,” while Anthropic kept prohibitions on mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons and now alleges First Amendment and due‑process violations.
- OpenAI quickly announced a Pentagon deal after Anthropic was blacklisted and later said it revised terms to add guardrails, as contractors begin shifting to alternative AI providers.
- More than 30 employees from OpenAI and Google DeepMind, including Google’s chief scientist Jeff Dean, filed a supporting statement arguing the Pentagon’s move chills debate and injects uncertainty into U.S. AI development.