Judge blocks Pentagon blacklist of Anthropic in AI dispute

A federal judge blocked the Pentagon from blacklisting Anthropic, handing the AI company a major win in its fight with the U.S. military over battlefield and surveillance uses of its Claude chatbot. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin ruled that the Defense Department acted unlawfully when it labeled Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk after the company refused to allow unrestricted military use of its technology. Anthropic argued the move retaliated against its views that current AI models are not safe for autonomous weapons and could enable mass surveillance. The designation had cut Anthropic off from some military contracts and, the company said, threatened billions of dollars in business. The Justice Department argued the dispute was about contract terms, not speech. Anthropic also has a separate case pending in Washington over another risk designation that could affect civilian contracts.