Hundreds of tech workers have signed an open letter urging the Department of Defense to withdraw its designation of Anthropic as a supply-chain risk. The letter also calls on Congress to examine whether the use of these extraordinary authorities against an American technology company is appropriate.
Signatories to the letter include employees from major technology and venture capital firms such as OpenAI, Slack, IBM, Cursor, and Salesforce Ventures. This action follows a dispute between the DOD and Anthropic after the AI lab refused last week to give the military unrestricted access to its AI systems.
In its negotiations with the Pentagon, Anthropic established two firm conditions. The company did not want its technology used for mass surveillance of Americans or to power autonomous weapons that could target and fire without a human operator. The DOD stated it had no plans to do either of those things but also asserted it should not be limited by the rules of a vendor.
After Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei declined to reach an agreement with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump directed federal agencies on Friday to stop using Anthropic’s technology after a six-month transition period. Secretary Hegseth then moved to designate Anthropic a supply-chain risk. This designation is normally reserved for foreign adversaries and would blacklist the AI firm from working with any agency or company that does business with the Pentagon.
In a social media post, Hegseth wrote that effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner doing business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic. However, such a post does not automatically enact the designation. The government must complete a risk assessment and notify Congress before military partners are required to cut ties with Anthropic.
Anthropic responded in a blog post, calling the designation legally unsound and stating it would challenge any supply chain risk designation in court. Many in the industry view the administration’s treatment of Anthropic as harsh and clear retaliation.
The open letter argues that when two parties cannot agree on terms, the normal course is to part ways and work with a competitor. It states this situation sets a dangerous precedent, punishing an American company for declining contract changes and sending a message to every technology company to accept whatever terms the government demands or face retaliation.
Beyond concerns over the government’s treatment of Anthropic, many in the industry remain worried about potential government overreach and the use of AI for nefarious purposes. Boaz Barak, an OpenAI researcher, wrote in a social media post that blocking governments from using AI for mass domestic surveillance is his personal red line and should be a universal standard.
Moments after President Trump publicly attacked Anthropic, OpenAI announced it had reached its own deal for its models to be deployed in the DOD’s classified environments. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated last week that his firm shares the same red lines as Anthropic.
Barak further wrote that if anything good can come from the events of the last week, it would be if the AI industry starts treating the issue of using AI for government abuse and surveilling its own people as a catastrophic risk. He noted the industry has done a good job with evaluations and mitigations for risks like bioweapons and cybersecurity and should apply similar processes here.