Tech Workers Protest 'Supply-Chain Risk' Label for Anthropic
A coalition of tech employees is lobbying the Pentagon and Congress to withdraw a “supply-chain risk” designation for AI firm Anthropic. The label, imposed last week, bans the use of Anthropic's models in government contracts. Critics argue the move stifles AI competition and was politically motivated.
The "supply-chain risk" designation against Anthropic originated from a dispute over the U.S. military's use of its AI model, Claude. The Pentagon reportedly demanded "full, unrestricted access" for "all lawful purposes," while Anthropic sought to maintain its policy against using its AI for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. This impasse in negotiations led to the controversial designation. The directive to label Anthropic as a "supply-chain risk" was issued by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, following a post on Truth Social by President Donald Trump ordering all federal agencies to cease using Anthropic's technology. Hegseth stated that effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner doing business with the military could conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic. This move has been described as unprecedented for an American company, a designation historically reserved for foreign adversaries like China's Huawei and Russia's Kaspersky Labs. Legal experts have questioned whether Secretary Hegseth has the statutory authority to impose such a broad ban on all commercial activity, suggesting the power is limited to government procurement for specific sensitive systems. In response to the designation, hundreds of tech workers from companies including OpenAI, Slack, IBM, and Salesforce Ventures signed an open letter to the Department of Defense and Congress. The letter urges the withdrawal of the designation and calls for Congressional oversight into the use of such authorities against a domestic company. Anthropic has publicly stated it will not change its position on mass domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons and intends to challenge the designation in court. CEO Dario Amodei called the government's actions "retaliatory and punitive." The company had previously been awarded a $200 million contract in July 2025 to provide its technology for use on classified networks. Shortly after the directive against Anthropic, competitor OpenAI announced it had reached a deal with the Department of Defense to deploy its AI models in classified environments. This development has intensified the debate over the ethical guardrails for military use of artificial intelligence.
