Defense Department says Anthropic’s ‘red lines’ make it ‘unacceptable national security risk’

The Pentagon said Tuesday evening that Anthropics poses an “unacceptable risk to national security,” the agency’s first response to the matter. Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Lawsuits Challenging Defense Minister Pete Hegseth’s decision last month Labeling the company with supply chain risks. As part of its complaint, Anthropic asked the court to temporarily block the Department of Defense from enforcing its trademark.

The core of the DoD’s argument, presented in 40 page file In a federal court in California, there are concerns that Anthropic may “attempt to disable its technology or proactively change the behavior of its model” before or during “combat operations” if the company feels its “red lines” have been crossed.

Last summer, Anthropic signed a $200 million contract with the Pentagon to deploy its technology within classified systems. In subsequent negotiations about the terms of the contract, Anthropy said It did not want its AI systems to be used for mass surveillance of Americans, and the technology was not ready for use in targeting or making decisions to launch lethal weapons. The Pentagon has objected that a private company should not dictate how the military uses technology.

Several organizations have spoken out against the Department of Defense’s treatment of Anthropic, arguing that the Department could have just terminated its contract. Many technology companies and employees – including from OpenII, GoogleMicrosoft – as well as legal rights groups, submitted amicus briefs in support of Anthropics.

In its lawsuits, Anthropic accused the Department of Defense of violating its First Amendment rights and punishing the company on ideological grounds.

A hearing on Anthropic’s request for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for next Tuesday.

Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.