Google And OpenAI Employees Back Anthropic In Pentagon Blacklist Legal Battle

Hyderabad: Amid the ongoing legal battle between the Artificial Intelligence (AI) company, Anthropic and the Pentagon, more than 30 employees from OpenAI and Google DeepMind, including Google chief scientist, Jeff Dean, have filed an amicus brief supporting the AI company.

The filing warns that the Trump Administration's decision to blacklist Anthropic threatens to damage the broader American AI industry. It is worth noting that the amicus brief was submitted hours after Anthropic issued two lawsuits challenging the government's designation of the company as a supply-chain risk. It is a term reserved for foreign entities accused of threatening United States military systems.

How the dispute began

The relations between Anthropic and the Pentagon broke down after the two sides failed to agree on contract terms governing how the company's AI model, Claude, could be used by the Department of Defence (DOD). Anthropic had sought two firm redlines in the contract terms. Firstly, DOD must not use Claude — Anthropic's AI chatbot — for domestic mass surveillance and secondly, it must not be used to create autonomous weapons. Instead, the Trump Administration insisted that Anthropic agree to allow the usage of its AI systems for "all lawful use", by removing all its safety restrictions from Claude AI.

Anthropic refused the contract. In response, the administration cancelled its government contracts with the company and designated it a national security risk.

Just hours later, OpenAI secured its own deal with the Pentagon, apparently agreeing to terms Anthropic had declined. The move triggered a public row between the two companies' chief executives. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei described OpenAI's approach as "safety theatre" and called OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's public statements "straight-up lies." Altman responded indirectly, saying it was "bad for society" when companies abandoned democratic norms because they disliked those in power.

Employee Opinion Spreads

The amicus brief reflects a broader mood among AI researchers. It follows an open letter signed by nearly 900 employees at Google and OpenAI, urging their own leadership to refuse government requests to deploy AI for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous lethal targeting — the same limits Anthropic had sought to enshrine in its Pentagon contract.

OpenAI has already lost one employee over the controversy. Caitlin Kalinowski, who had led hardware and robotics at the company since November 2024, resigned over the Pentagon deal. She stated that domestic surveillance without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorisation were issues that require greater deliberation.

The dispute is similar to the events that occurred at Google in 2018, when nearly 4,000 employees signed a petition objecting to the company's involvement in Project Maven. It was a DOD contract that involved the analysis of aerial surveillance imagery using AI. The objection from employees led to Google declining its involvement in the military programme. Amazon and Microsoft subsequently took over Project Maven.

Anthropic's legal challenge against the Pentagon is expected to have significant implications for the regulation of AI and the relationship between technology companies and government. This may also involve wider employee pushback across the industry.