US judge rules Trump sanctions against Anthropic illegal

n n

A US federal judge ruled Thursday that sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration against AI giant Anthropic were illegal, finding that the government punished the company in a row over military use of its technology.

n

Anthropic infuriated Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth in February by insisting its technology should not be used for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons systems.

n

In his esponse, Trump ordered every government agency to stop using Anthropic’s products, while Hegseth labelled the company a “supply chain risk” to national security.

n

“The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics,” Judge Rita Lin said in a 59-page decision seen by AFP.

n

She barred the federal agencies named in the lawsuit from enforcing Trump’s order to stop using the tools of Anthropic — creator of the Claude AI models — and overturned Hegseth’s designation of the company as a “supply chain risk,” a status previously reserved for foreign firms.

n

The ruling makes permanent the temporary suspension of sanctions ordered by the judge in March and takes effect immediately. The government may appeal.

n

“We welcome the court’s ruling that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful,” an Anthropic spokesperson said Thursday.

n

“We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology.”

n

The conflict arose after Anthropic refused to allow the US military to use Claude for fully autonomous lethal weapons or for the mass surveillance of Americans.

n

Trump had lashed out at the company when it took that step. In a February social media post, he called it “a radical left, woke company” and “out-of-control.”

n

In Thursday’s ruling, the judge said that the sanctions against the company “were based on a desire to make a public example out of Anthropic for its ‘arrogance’ in criticizing the government” rather than to counter a genuine threat.

n

– ‘Chilling effects’ –

n

The military had been using Claude across a range of classified and sensitive systems. According to reports by the Wall Street Journal and Axios, that included during the January operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

n

The supply chain risk designation, formally made in March, had canceled Anthropic’s military contracts and barred other Pentagon contractors from using its technology.

n

“The harm caused by the (sanctions) has had ripple effects through the government contracting industry, risking significant chilling effects,” the ruling said.

n

However, Anthropic’s victory is not total.

n

A second sanction imposed by the Pentagon on the same day, based on public procurement regulations, remains in effect pending a court ruling in Washington, where a judge refused to suspend the measure in April.

n

The White House has also bristled at Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s repeated warnings about the dangers of artificial intelligence — including the impact on jobs.

n

Anthropic and rival OpenAI released their most powerful models this year, known as Claude Mythos and Sol respectively, boosting concerns across the industry about safety and security.

n

Anthropic admitted last month that three different versions of its Claude model “gained unauthorized access” to outside organizations during testing that was supposed to keep them away from “real-world” systems.

n

A similar incident at OpenAI triggered a petition signed by more than 1,000 employees at cutting-edge AI companies calling on the US government to help slow the release of the most advanced AI models.

n

Anthropic’s Amodei was among those who signed the petition.

n

The company is expected within weeks to make a public stock market listing that could eclipse SpaceX’s record Wall Street debut in June, which raised $86.2 billion.

n

AFP

n n