Judge rules Pentagon wrong to punish AI supplier Anthropic

A federal judge in California on Thursday ruled in favor of Anthropic in a lawsuit over the Pentagon’s labeling of the artificial intelligence company as a supply chain risk. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin blocked the Defense Department’s blacklisting of Anthropic. She said that the Pentagon illegally punished Anthropic for exercising its free speech rights by criticizing the department’s views on AI use.

The company welcomed the ruling, stating that it planned to focus on working productively with the government to use AI for national security, an Anthropic spokesperson told the Associated Press. WORLD reached out to Anthropic and the Pentagon for further comment, but did not immediately hear back.

How did the case get here? In February, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanded that the Pentagon have full access to Anthropic’s AI technology for unrestricted military use. He warned that if the company didn’t comply, the Defense Department would designate it a supply chain risk. That label would bar any companies with military contracts from using Anthropic’s products in military work. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to hand over access, citing concerns that the company’s products could be used for fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance. Anthropic sued in March after being designated a supply chain risk.

What was the judge’s reasoning? In Thursday’s ruling, Lin said the Pentagon’s decision was illegal and baseless. The government’s empty national security concerns did not give it a blank check to punish Anthropic, the judge said. The department sought to make a public example of Anthropic for its criticism of the government, she said. The department’s actions violated the AI company’s First Amendment speech rights, Lin added.

Doesn’t Anthropic have a lawsuit in Washington on this? Anthropic has filed a separate, narrower case that was still pending in the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. as of Friday.

Dig deeper: Read my report for more details on why Anthropic declined the Pentagon’s demands.