Judge says Pentagon’s measures against Anthropic were ‘illegal and baseless’

A federal judge has declared the Pentagon's measures against artificial intelligence company Anthropic to be "illegal and baseless," according to a written order issued Thursday night. The government had previously labeled Anthropic as a supply chain risk, accusing the company of endangering national security and promoting concerns over potential misuse of its technology.

However, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin ruled that the Pentagon's actions were unlawful, stating they were motivated by a desire to publicly shame Anthropic for criticizing the Department of Defense's stance on AI. The judge emphasized that there was no concrete evidence suggesting Anthropic would intentionally undermine its own models.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had previously expressed concerns about the potential for mass surveillance or autonomous armed drones being developed using the company's products. The judge's decision to temporarily block the Pentagon from labeling Anthropic as a supply chain risk and halt the enforcement of President Trump's directive to stop federal agencies from using Anthropic's AI chatbot Claude was also overturned.

Anthropic expressed satisfaction with the ruling, emphasizing their commitment to collaborating with the government to leverage AI for national security and benefit all Americans. The White House has yet to respond to a request for comment on the matter.