Artificial intelligence firm Anthropic filed a lawsuit Monday against the Trump administration, accusing the US government of retaliating after the company refused to allow its AI technology to be used for autonomous lethal weapons and mass surveillance.

According to a report by Agence France-Presse, the company filed a 48-page complaint in federal court in San Francisco seeking to overturn its designation as a national security supply-chain risk.

Anthropic argued the designation was unlawful and could severely damage the company’s business.

The lawsuit said the company was founded on the principle that its AI technology should be used responsibly and for the benefit of society.

“Anthropic brings this suit because the federal government has retaliated against it for expressing that principle,” the complaint states.

The designation effectively blocks the US Department of Defense from using Anthropic’s technology and requires defense contractors to certify that they are not using the company’s AI systems.

Anthropic said the label is typically reserved for companies linked to foreign adversaries, such as Chinese telecom giant Huawei, making the move unprecedented for a US-based firm.

Dispute over AI use in warfare

The conflict reportedly escalated after Anthropic opposed the use of its Claude AI model for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons systems.

Following the disagreement, US President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using the company’s technology.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later designated Anthropic as a “Supply-Chain Risk to National Security,” barring military contractors and suppliers from doing business with the firm.

Anthropic said the order could destroy the economic value created by one of the fastest-growing AI companies.

“The consequences of this case are enormous,” the complaint states.

AI industry support

More than three dozen AI researchers and industry professionals from companies including OpenAI and Google submitted an amicus brief supporting Anthropic.

Among them was Google chief scientist Jeff Dean.

The group argued that current AI systems are not reliable enough to make lethal decisions without human oversight and warned about the dangers of combining powerful AI with large-scale personal data.

“We are united in the conviction that today’s frontier AI systems present risks when deployed to enable domestic mass surveillance or the operation of autonomous lethal weapons systems without human oversight,” the brief said.

Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei, both former researchers at OpenAI.

The company has positioned itself as a safety-focused alternative in the global race to develop advanced artificial intelligence.