DOD: Anthropic's 'red lines' pose unacceptable national security risk

The U.S. Department of Defense stated Tuesday evening that Anthropic presents an “unacceptable risk to national security,” marking the agency’s first formal rejection of the AI lab’s lawsuits challenging Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision last month to classify the company as a supply-chain risk. As part of its legal complaints, Anthropic had requested the court temporarily block the DOD from enforcing that designation.

At the core of the DOD’s argument, laid out in a 40-page filing in a California federal court, is the concern that Anthropic might “attempt to disable its technology or preemptively alter the behavior of its model” before or during “warfighting operations” if the company “feels that its corporate ‘red lines’ are being crossed.”

Last summer, Anthropic signed a $200 million contract with the Pentagon to deploy its technology within classified systems. During later negotiations over contract terms, Anthropic stated it did not want its AI systems used for mass surveillance of Americans and that the technology was not yet ready for targeting or firing decisions involving lethal weapons. The Pentagon countered that a private company should not dictate how the military uses technology.

In response, an Anthropic spokesperson pointed to CEO Dario Amodei’s late February statement: “Anthropic understands that the Department of War, not private companies, makes military decisions. We have never raised objections to particular military operations nor attempted to limit use of our technology in an ad hoc manner.”

Chris Mattei, a lawyer specializing in First Amendment issues and a former Justice Department attorney, told TechCrunch that no investigation has been conducted to support the DOD’s concerns that Anthropic might disable or alter its AI models during warfighting operations. Without such evidence, Mattei argued, the department’s reasoning fails to adequately explain how Anthropic’s negotiating stance made it an “adversary.”

“The government is relying entirely on conjectural, speculative imaginings to justify a very, very serious legal step they’ve taken against Anthropic,” Mattei said. He added that the department failed to “articulate a credible or even comprehensible rationale for why Anthropic’s refusal to agree to an ‘all lawful use’ provision rendered it a supply chain risk as opposed to a vendor that DOD simply didn’t want to do business with.”

Many organizations have spoken out against the DOD’s treatment of Anthropic, arguing that the department could have simply ended its contract. Several tech companies and employees — including from OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft — as well as legal rights groups have filed amicus briefs in support of Anthropic.

In its lawsuits, Anthropic accused the DOD of infringing on its First Amendment rights and punishing the company based on ideological grounds.

“In many ways, the government’s nonsensical arguments are themselves the best evidence that the administration’s conduct was plainly a retaliatory punishment for Anthropic’s refusal to agree to the government’s terms, which, contrary to the government’s brief, is a form of protected expression,” Mattei told TechCrunch.

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

An Anthropic spokesperson told TechCrunch that the decision to seek judicial review does not change its “longstanding commitment to harnessing AI to protect our national security,” but that it is a “necessary step” to protect its business, customers, and partners.

This article has been updated to include information from Chris Mattei, a constitutional rights lawyer, and comments from Anthropic.