Court rules Trump can blacklist Anthropic for refusing to enable Claude features
“Overly constrained AI models” could cause military operations to fail, judges say.
TL;DR
- A US appeals court upheld the Trump administration's authority to blacklist Anthropic technology.
- The court ruled that the US can blacklist Anthropic for withholding AI features, regardless of intent.
- The decision allows for balancing risks of constrained AI failing military operations and unconstrained AI targeting inappropriately.
- Anthropic had sued the administration after being banned from doing business with defense contractors.
- A previous ruling in a district court found the blacklisting unlawful under a different statute.
- The appeals court focused on a statute with broader definitions of supply chain risk, not limited to adversaries.
- A dissenting judge argued the statute was intended for threats from hostile nation-states and bad actors.