US Commerce chief says Anthropic back on 'right side' with Trump, Axios reports

WASHINGTON, September 2: U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated that AI company Anthropic is back on the right side of the Trump administration, according to Axios, who cited an interview with Lutnick. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had previously prevented Anthropic from securing certain military contracts due to the company's refusal to permit the use of its Claude AI models for domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons.

Anthropic had filed a lawsuit in a California court. On August 27, a U.S. judge ruled in Anthropic's favor, siding with the company in its dispute with the American military regarding AI safety on the battlefield. As of now, Anthropic and the Commerce Department have not provided comments to Reuters. Anthropic's co-founder, Tom Brown, addressed a tech-focused G20 event in North Carolina on Wednesday morning, emphasizing the importance of data centers and urging officials to grant permits for their construction in various countries.