American artificial intelligence company Anthropic has been officially labeled a “Supply Chain Risk” by the US government. The firm received a notification on March 4 regarding this designation and intends to challenge it in court. CEO Dario Amodei issued an apology for criticizing President Donald Trump in an internal memo, stating that the assessment was outdated and did not reflect the company’s stance.
In a blog post, Amodei expressed Anthropic’s disagreement with the classification under 10 U.S.C. 3252, deeming it legally questionable. He emphasized that the statute aims to safeguard the government rather than penalize a supplier. Amodei highlighted the mutual commitment of the War Department and Anthropic to bolstering US national security through AI applications across government functions.
Amodei clarified that the SCR designation pertains solely to the utilization of Anthropic’s Claude models in Department of War contracts and not to all customer interactions involving Claude. He explained that the critical remarks about President Trump were made shortly after an announcement that Anthropic would be excluded from federal systems, attributing the tone to the challenging circumstances faced by the company.
The company assured that individual customers and commercial contract holders with Anthropic will continue to access Claude without disruption through various channels. If formally implemented, the SCR designation for Department of War contractors would impact the use of Claude specifically for DoW contract-related tasks, leaving other applications unaffected.
Infosys, a prominent Indian tech firm, recently disclosed a collaboration with Anthropic to develop and provide advanced enterprise AI solutions across multiple sectors, including telecommunications, financial services, manufacturing, and software development.
