Anthropic Sues Defense Department Over Supply Chain Risk Designation

Anthropic filed a civil complaint on March 9 in the Northern District of California against the Department of Defense. The suit challenges the Pentagon's designation of the frontier AI firm as a supply chain risk. The five-count complaint followed weeks of tensions over the company's two ethical red lines for use of its Claude AI model by the Defense Department. Those red lines prohibit autonomous lethal warfare and mass surveillance of Americans. The suit states that Anthropic was founded on the belief that AI technologies should be developed and used to maximize positive outcomes for humanity. It adds that the firm's primary principle is that the most capable artificial intelligence systems should also be the safest and most responsible. The complaint argues that the federal government retaliated against Anthropic for expressing that principle. It states that the Constitution confers on the company the right to express its views about the limitations of its AI services and important issues of AI safety. The first count alleges that the Department of Defense violated the Administrative Procedure Act by designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk without following the procedure set by Congress. The second and third counts claim the designation unconstitutionally retaliates against the firm's protected viewpoints. The fourth and fifth counts allege violations under the Due Process Clause and the Administrative Procedure Act. Those counts cite the lack of procedure in the risk designation and unilateral contract cancellations by other executive branch departments and agencies. Also on March 9, Anthropic filed a petition in the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit requesting review of the Pentagon's supply chain risk determination.