What happened
US President Donald Trump ordered government departments to immediately cease using Anthropic’s AI technology, initiating a six-month phase-out period for existing deployments. This directive followed Anthropic’s refusal to grant the Pentagon unrestricted access to its models, including Claude AI, for fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth subsequently designated Anthropic a national security supply chain risk, a label historically reserved for foreign adversaries. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei stated the company would challenge the designation in court, citing its safety principles.
Why it matters
The designation of a domestic AI firm as a national security supply chain risk establishes a precedent for how governments may enforce access to frontier AI models. Procurement teams within government departments must now navigate a mandated six-month transition away from Anthropic's tools, while AI developers face increased pressure to align product capabilities with national security demands or risk market exclusion. This follows OpenAI's recent agreement to deploy models in classified defence settings, highlighting diverging paths for AI companies engaging with government contracts.
Subscribe for Weekly Updates
Stay ahead with our weekly AI and tech briefings, delivered every Tuesday.
