A US judge blocks the Pentagon from blacklisting Anthropic, ruling that its designation as a supply-chain risk was "illegal and baseless" (Jack Queen/Reuters)

A US judge has blocked the Pentagon from blacklisting AI startup Anthropic, ruling that its designation as a supply-chain risk was "illegal and baseless". According to Quartz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had placed the designation on Anthropic. The company, maker of the Claude chatbot, had refused to allow the military to use its AI model for US surveillance or autonomous weapons.

The judge, Rita Lin, wrote that the invocation of national security was not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics. She stated that the Pentagon's actions violated the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. The court directed the Department of Defense to revoke all guidance, directives, communications, or instructions issued against Anthropic.

The blacklisting could have cost Anthropic billions of dollars, according to Handelsblatt. The company had argued that AI models for autonomous weapon systems were not reliable enough and that domestic surveillance would violate citizens' rights. The US Department of Justice had countered that Anthropic's refusal could endanger military systems during ongoing operations, as per The New York Times and Hindustan Times - World News.

Brief written by urgent.news from Techmeme, Quartz, Handelsblatt, The New York Times, Hindustan Times - World News — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.