A U.S. judge has given a ruling in favour of Anthropic, which prevents the U.S. administration and, more specifically, the Pentagon, from labelling the AI company a national security risk.
“We’re grateful to the court for moving swiftly, and pleased they agree Anthropic is likely to succeed on the merits. While this case was necessary to protect Anthropic, our customers, and our partners, our focus remains on working productively with the government to ensure all Americans benefit from safe, reliable AI,” said an Anthropic spokesperson after the verdict.
The update comes after a bitter dispute between Anthropic and various departments of the U.S. Government, in which U.S. President Donald Trump and Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth both went on to say that Anthropic was prioritising its own set of values over American national interests.
“Nothing in the governing statute supports the Orwellian notion that an American company may be branded a potential adversary and saboteur of the U.S. for expressing disagreement with the government,” said U.S. Judge Rita F. Lin.
Lin said in a 43-page document that the government’s actions seemed aimed at punishing Anthropic.
Anthropic has been advocating that its models need proper guardrails to function, refusing at one point to give the U.S. Department of Defence unrestricted access to its technology, after which the company was threatened with a “supply-chain risk”, a tag, if applied, would severely impact its image in the market.
Since then, Anthropic had been locked in a legal standoff with the Pentagon, suing it for the government’s decision to give it a tag that would put it in the same category as foreign adversaries.