The U.S. Department of Defense has designated Anthropic, the artificial intelligence (AI) company that developed 'Claude,' a rival to ChatGPT, as a "supply chain security threat" company. This is the first time the U.S. government has wielded the strong sanctions card typically applied only to hostile countries like China against domestic technology companies.
According to major foreign media outlets including Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the U.S. Department of Defense recently officially notified Anthropic that it is being considered a supply chain risk company and announced on the 5th (local time) that the measure takes effect immediately.
The core reason for this sanction is "guaranteeing military autonomy." A senior official at the U.S. Department of Defense stated, "The basic principle is that the military command system must be able to use technology without any restrictions as long as it is for legitimate purposes," and took a strong stance by saying, "We cannot allow situations where AI suppliers arbitrarily restrict the military's use of technology based on subjective standards, affecting the command system or putting combatants at risk."
Once designated as a supply chain risk company, defense contractors that have contracts with the Department of Defense must separately certify that Anthropic products were not used in services provided to the military. This is essentially a measure that restricts the use of the relevant technology in military-related supply chains.
This measure was previously applied mainly to companies from hostile countries. For this reason, a U.S. company receiving the same measure is evaluated as a very rare case.
Anthropic immediately protested. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei stated in a statement, "We believe this measure has no legal justification," and said they "will consider measures including legal action."
============================
Wow... the U.S. government doesn't seem to be in its right mind
