US appeals court upholds Pentagon’s blacklisting of Anthropic

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the Pentagon’s blacklisting of Anthropic from military contracts, handing a victory to President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in their battle with the AI startup over safety guardrails on its technology.

The 2-1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington came in a lawsuit by Anthropic challenging its March designation by the Pentagon as a national security supply chain risk, which the startup says has cost it billions of dollars in lost business and damaged its reputation ahead of a highly anticipated initial public offering.

The court’s majority said it was reasonable for the Pentagon to designate Anthropic after it refused to allow its products to be used for autonomous weapons or mass surveillance. It rejected Anthropic’s claim that the Pentagon had retaliated against it for its views on AI safety and ethics.

Siding with Hegseth’s argument that Anthropic’s safety restrictions could compromise military operations, the majority said, “The Secretary raises the deeply sobering prospect of overly constrained AI models shutting down unexpectedly and thus causing important military operations to fail,” in an opinion by Judge Gregory Katsas.

San Francisco-based Anthropic said in a statement Friday that it respectfully disagrees with the decision but remains confident in its position and is considering its options, including review of the three-judge panel’s decision by the full appeals court.

The White House and the Department of Defense did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

A federal judge in San Francisco last month struck down a parallel designation under a different law, finding the administration had unlawfully retaliated against Anthropic for its views on AI safety. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco also blocked Trump’s government-wide ban on Anthropic and Hegseth’s order barring military contractors from doing any business with the startup.

Hegseth designated Anthropic as a risk under two different laws after Anthropic refused to remove guardrails against its technology being used for autonomous weapons or mass domestic surveillance.

The unprecedented move came after months of negotiations ended in failure and public recriminations by Hegseth and Trump, who accused Anthropic of endangering American lives with ideological posturing.

Anthropic denied that characterization and said AI is not yet reliable enough to be safely used in autonomous weapons. The company also said it opposes domestic surveillance as a violation of fundamental rights.

周五，一家联邦上诉法院维持了五角大楼将 Anthropic 列入军事合同黑名单的决定，这使得唐纳德·特朗普总统和国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯在与这家人工智能初创公司就其技术安全防护措施的斗争中取得了胜利。

美国华盛顿上诉法院以 2 比 1 的裁决驳回了 Anthropic 公司提起的诉讼。Anthropic 公司对五角大楼 3 月份将其列为国家安全供应链风险的决定提出质疑，该公司表示，这一决定已导致其损失数十亿美元的业务，并在备受瞩目的首次公开募股之前损害了其声誉。

法院多数法官认为，五角大楼在Anthropic公司拒绝允许其产品用于自主武器或大规模监控后，将其列为目标公司是合理的。法院驳回了Anthropic公司关于五角大楼因其在人工智能安全和伦理方面的观点而对其进行报复的说法。

多数法官赞同赫格塞斯的论点，即人脑公司的安全限制可能会损害军事行动。格雷戈里·卡特萨斯法官在一份意见书中表示：“部长提出了一个令人深感担忧的前景，即过度受限的人工智能模型可能会意外关闭，从而导致重要的军事行动失败。”

总部位于旧金山的 Anthropic 公司周五发表声明称，该公司虽然不同意这一决定，但仍对自己的立场充满信心，并正在考虑各种选择，包括要求上诉法院全体法官审查三名法官小组的决定。

白宫和国防部尚未回复寻求置评的电子邮件。

上个月，旧金山一位联邦法官驳回了依据另一项法律作出的类似认定，认为特朗普政府因Anthropic公司在人工智能安全方面的观点而对其进行了非法报复。旧金山联邦地区法官丽塔·林还阻止了特朗普政府对Anthropic公司实施的全面禁令，以及赫格塞斯法官禁止军工承包商与这家初创公司进行任何业务往来的命令。

在 Anthropic 拒绝移除防止其技术被用于自主武器或大规模国内监控的防护措施后，Hegseth 根据两项不同的法律将 Anthropic 列为风险对象。

这一史无前例的举动是在数月的谈判以失败告终，以及赫格塞斯和特朗普公开互相指责之后发生的。特朗普指责安人智公司以意识形态姿态危害美国人的生命。

安特罗皮克公司否认了这种说法，并表示人工智能的可靠性尚不足以安全地用于自主武器。该公司还表示，反对国内监控，认为其侵犯了基本人权。