The U.S. Department of Defense has designated AI company Anthropic a supply chain risk, a label typically used for foreign adversaries. This follows Anthropic's refusal to allow its AI systems to be used for domestic mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons.
The designation threatens to disrupt military operations, as Anthropic's Claude model is currently used in key systems like Palantir's Maven Smart System for U.S. operations in the Middle East. Critics call the move unprecedented and retaliatory, with hundreds of tech employees urging Congress to push back.
In contrast, OpenAI has agreed to a deal allowing military use of its AI for "all lawful purposes," raising concerns among its own employees about potential ethical overreach.
Main Topics: U.S. Department of Defense vs. Anthropic conflict, supply chain risk designation, ethical AI use in military applications, industry and critic reactions, comparison with OpenAI's stance.
The Department of Defense has officially notified Anthropic leadership that the company and its products have been designated a supply chain risk, Bloomberg reports, citing a senior department official.
The designation comes after weeks of conflict between the AI lab and the DOD. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has refused to allow the military to use its AI systems for mass surveillance of Americans or to power fully autonomous weapons with no humans assisting in the targeting or firing decisions. The Department has argued that its use of AI should not be limited by a private contractor.
Supply chain risk designations are typically reserved for foreign adversaries. The label requires any company or agency that does work with the Pentagon to certify that it doesn’t use Anthropic’s models.
The Pentagon’s finding threatens to disrupt both the company and its own operations. Anthropic has been the only frontier AI lab with classified-ready systems. The U.S. military is currently relying on Claude in its Iran campaign, where American forces are using AI tools to quickly manage the data for their operations. Claude is one of the main tools installed in Palantir’s Maven Smart System, which military operators in the Middle East rely on, according to Bloomberg.
Labeling Anthropic a supply chain risk over this disagreement is an unprecedented move from the Department, several critics say. Dean Ball, a former Trump White House AI advisor, has referred to the designation as a “death rattle” of the American republic, arguing government has abandoned strategic clarity and respect in favor of “thuggish” tribalism that treats domestic innovators worse than foreign adversaries.
Hundreds of employees from OpenAI and Google have urged the DOD to withdraw its designation and called on Congress to push back on what could be perceived as an inappropriate use of authority against an American technology company. They have also urged their leaders to stand together to continue to refuse the DOD’s demands to use their AI models for domestic mass surveillance and “autonomously killing people without human oversight.”
TechCrunch has reached out to Anthropic for comment.
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In the midst of the dispute, OpenAI forged its own deal with the Department to allow the military to use its AI systems for “all lawful purposes.” Some of the company’s own employees have expressed concern about the ambiguous phrasing of the deal, which could lead to exactly the type of uses Anthropic was trying to avoid.
Amodei has called the actions of the DOD “retaliatory and punitive,” and reportedly said his refusal to praise or donate to President Trump contributed to the dispute with the Pentagon. OpenAI President Greg Brockman has been a staunch backer of Trump, recently donating $25 million to the MAGA Inc. Super PAC.
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