Anthropic asked a U.S. appeals court on Tuesday to reconsider a September ruling that upheld the Pentagon's decision to label the AI company a national security supply-chain risk. The dispute stems from Anthropic's refusal to allow its AI to be used in autonomous weapons or mass surveillance — safety guardrails the Pentagon argued could compromise military operations.
In its petition to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., Anthropic argued the 2-1 panel majority misinterpreted a federal law "aimed at hostile foreign actors into one that presumptively reaches every government contractor," and said the designation was retaliation for its speech about AI safety. The company says the blacklisting has cost it billions of dollars in lost business. Separately, a federal judge in California struck down a parallel designation under a different law in August.
Why it matters: The case will shape how far the government can go in policing AI companies' safety policies — and whether safety restrictions become a liability in federal contracting. Expect the ruling to ripple across the AI industry regardless of which way the rehearing goes.
