Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Artificial intelligence (AI) firm Anthropic has filed a first of its kind lawsuit against the US government over claims that it is a “supply chain risk”.
The AI firm’s chief executive Dario Amodei and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth have been publicly rowing due to the company’s refusal to allow the military unfettered use of its AI tools.
The Pentagon retaliated by making Anthropic the first US company to be labelled a “supply chain risk”, but Anthropic said in its lawsuit on March 9 against a list of US government agencies that the government’s action was “unprecedented and unlawful”.
A spokesman for the US Department of Defense declined to comment citing a policy on active litigation. “The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech,” Anthropic wrote.
“No federal statute authorizes the actions taken here.” Anthropic’s lawsuit is against President Donald Trump’s executive office; several government leaders, including Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick; and 16 government agencies, including the Department of War, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Energy.
Liz Huston, a spokeswoman for the White House, told the BBC that Anthropic is “a radical left, woke company” attempting to control military activity. “Under the Trump Administration, our military will obey the United States Constitution – not any woke AI company’s terms of service,” Huston said. Anthropic argued against this in its legal complaint filed in California federal court.
