A US Judge has ordered a temporary pause on the Pentagon’s designation of AI company Anthropic as a supply chain risk, describing it as “arbitrary and capricious”.

The case, heard by judge Rita Lin in the Northern District of California, is ongoing, but Anthropic has been granted a temporary injunction freezing a presidential order that barred federal agencies from using the company’s technology.

Lin found that the government was unfairly punitive in its response to Anthropic’s refusal to allow the Department of Defense – referred to by the Trump administration as the Department of War following an executive order, though only Congress has the authority to formally change the name – to use its models for fully autonomous lethal weapons or mass domestic surveillance.

She wrote that “The Department of War provides no legitimate basis to infer from Anthropic’s forthright insistence on usage restrictions that it might become a saboteur.” Anthropic’s designation as a supply chain risk by the Trump administration is the first use of the classification on a US-based company.

The injunction will come into force in seven days to allow time for the administration to appeal, meaning that US agencies and their contractors will not have to cut ties with Anthropic immediately.

Anthropic said: “While this case was necessary to protect Anthropic, our customers and our partners, our focus remains on working productively with the government to ensure all Americans benefit from safe, reliable AI.” The company has previously said that it has “much more in common with the Department of War” than it has differences.

Many Anthropic of Anthropic’s major competitors, including OpenAI, Google and Microsoft, have been publicly supportive of the company in both its legal battle and its opposition to the use of AI for mass domestic surveillance.

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