Status update with the Department of War

Dario Amodei said that on March 4, Anthropic was notified by the Department of War that it had been designated a supply chain risk to U.S. national security. The company believes this action is not legally valid and intends to contest it in court.

He explained that the scope of this designation is much narrower than the company initially claimed. The action applies only to use of Claude within direct contracts with the Department of War, and does not restrict all use of Claude by customers who hold such contracts.

Amodei emphasized that the relevant statute, 10 USC 3252, is a narrow provision that only permits minimal restrictions for government protection purposes. So even for Department of War contractors, it cannot block other business relationships with Anthropic or uses of Claude unrelated to that contract.

Anthropic also said it has had productive conversations with the Department of War over the past several days, discussing ways to continue providing service while observing two exceptions, and, if that proves impossible, plans for a smooth transition. The company added that its concerns are limited to fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance, which are matters of high-level use rather than operational decision-making.

Amodei also directly apologized for the leak of an internal post to the press. He explained that the post was not deliberately leaked to the press, and that it occurred amid a confusing situation overlapping the President's Truth Social post, the Secretary of War's X post, and the chaotic announcement of a deal between OpenAI and the Pentagon.

Anthropic's top priority is ensuring that warfighters and national security professionals engaged in war-fighting do not lose access to essential tools. The company said that for as long as a transition is needed, and to the extent permitted, it will continue providing its models to the Department of War and the national security community at nominal cost, along with continued engineering support.