Sen. Warren questions DOD about Anthropic blacklist that 'appears to be retaliation'

Sen. Elizabeth Warren , D-Mass., said the Department of Defense 's decision to designate artificial intelligence startup Anthropic a supply chain risk "appears to be retaliation." In a formal letter to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday, Warren noted that the department "could have chosen to terminate its contract with Anthropic or continued using its technology in unclassified systems." "I am particularly concerned that the DoD is trying to strong-arm American companies into providing the Department with the tools to spy on American citizens and deploy fully autonomous weapons without adequate safeguards," Warren wrote. U.S. senators are seeking more answers from the Defense Department's contracts with tech companies as the war in Iran continues, with the conflict entering a fourth week. In the days leading up to the war, the DOD and Anthropic clashed as the department sought unfettered access to its models for all "lawful purposes," while Anthropic wanted assurance that its models would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or domestic "mass surveillance." On Feb. 27, Hegseth posted that he was directing the DOD to apply the "supply chain risk" label on the company. The official notice came a week later as the department continued to use Anthropic's Claude model in Iran . Anthropic filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration after the company was blacklisted and deemed a threat to U.S. national security. A preliminary hearing for the suit is scheduled for Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California. Read more CNBC tech news Micron revenue almost triples, tops estimates as demand for memory soars Uber to invest up to $1.25 billion in EV maker Rivian in deal to launch 50,000 robotaxis Meta is shutting down VR social platform Horizon Worlds in further pivot away from the metaverse Meta’s Manus launches desktop app to bring its AI agent onto personal devices amid OpenClaw craze Hours after Anthropic was blacklisted, Ope...