Anthropic gets so much public support after Trump blacklisting that it crashes the Claude app |
Anthropic gets so much public support after Trump blacklisting that it crashes the Claude app
The AI company gained a new legion of fans by opposing the Pentagon using its tech for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei [Images: Prakash Singh/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Adobe Stock]
Anthropic may have lost a fan in Donald Trump, but it seems to have gained plenty of new ones after refusing to make a deal with the United States government, citing ethics concerns.
The AI company was embroiled in debate with the Department of Defense (DoD), which has been using Anthropic’s technology internally at various levels. After the DoD announced it would only contract with AI companies that acceded to “any lawful use” of their products, Anthropic pushed back, asking that certain safeguards remain in place to prevent its technology from being used for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.
The DoD set a deadline of 5:01 p.m. on Friday, February 27 for Anthropic to agree to its new policy or risk being blacklisted by the government. The day before the deadline, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei released a statement explaining the company’s position.
“In a narrow set of cases, we believe AI can undermine, rather than defend, democratic values,” Amodei said. “Some uses are also simply outside the bounds of what today’s technology can safely and reliably do. […] We cannot in good conscience accede to their request.”
The February 27 deadline passed without agreement, and President Trump quickly ordered all government agencies to “immediately cease” using all Anthropic technology: “The Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a DISASTROUS MISTAKE trying to STRONG-ARM the Department of War, and force them to obey their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth followed Trump’s post with a statement on X, saying he was directing the Pentagon to designate Anthropic as “a Supply-Chain Risk to National Security,” barring any company in business with the U.S. military from any commercial activity with Anthropic.
“America’s warfighters will never be held hostage by the ideological whims of Big Tech,” Hegseth added.
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