Pentagon Denies It Retaliated Against Anthropic in Security-Risk Designation Case

The Department of War on Monday denied claims that it retaliated against Anthropic by labeling the AI company a supply-chain risk after it refused to grant unrestricted access to its Claude AI model.

The Pentagon’s filing came after Anthropic sued in March to challenge the designation, alleging that the federal government was punishing the company for its First Amendment-protected speech and viewpoint.

The designation, imposed under a federal law designed to protect military systems from foreign sabotage, prevents the company from doing business with the federal government and its contractors.

In its filing, the Pentagon argued that Anthropic’s claim under the Administrative Procedure Act—a federal law that allows courts to set aside agency actions found to be contrary to constitutional rights—is not subject to judicial review because the company is not challenging a “final agency action.”

The Epoch Times reached out to Anthropic for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

The Pentagon designated the AI company as a supply-chain risk in March after the company refused to change the user policy for its Claude model to grant the government unrestricted access.

Anthropic said it was concerned that the technology could be used for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons, which the Pentagon has denied.

The Pentagon said in its recent filing that it does not intend to use Claude “to surveil U.S. persons at scale or field weapons systems that may kill without human oversight.”

U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction on March 26 to temporarily block the designation, allowing Anthropic to continue doing business with federal agencies and contractors while the litigation is ongoing.

Anthropic is also pursuing another ​lawsuit in Washington over a Pentagon supply-chain risk designation that could lead to its exclusion ​from civilian government contracts. In April, a federal appeals court in Washington ruled the Pentagon could proceed with the designation.

The Pentagon uses the Claude AI system for mission-critical functions, including intelligence analysis, modeling and simulation, operational planning, and cyber operations, according to Anthropic.

Last week, President Donald Trump issued a memo to accelerate the development and use of AI for national security, while warning against using the technology for surveillance.

The memo instructs Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to issue an updated directive on autonomous weapon systems, with annual reviews to account for AI’s rapidly evolving capabilities and to ensure the “deliberate adoption of AI systems that respect the chain of command and operational authorities.”

It also states that the national security enterprise must ensure that no commercial entity can disable, degrade, or materially modify an AI system used by U.S. military forces without the government’s approval.

Matthew Vadum and Reuters contributed to this report.