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.

Hours after Anthropic was blacklisted, OpenAI came into the picture, announcing a deal with the DOD.

The company said it was confident the DOD would not use its AI systems for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons because of OpenAI's "safety stack," existing laws, and the contract language, which has not been shared in full.

However, neither Altman nor the defense department has been able to assuage the concerns of lawmakers, the public and some of the companies' employees.

Warren is also seeking answers from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

In a letter Monday, Warren asked Altman for information about the terms of its DOD agreement

"I am concerned that the terms of this agreement may permit the Trump Administration to use OpenAI's technology to conduct mass surveillance of Americans and build lethal autonomous weapons that could harm civilians with little to no human oversight," the letter states.

Last week, Altman met with a handful of lawmakers in Washington, D.C., where Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., raised "serious questions" about the company's approach to warfare and its DOD contract.

"Ultimately, it is impossible to assess any safeguards and prohibitions that may exist in OpenAI's agreement with DoD without seeing the full contract, which neither DoD nor OpenAI have made available," Warren wrote.

She added that what has been made public raises significant concerns about the DOD's use of AI.

Despite calls for answers, Democrats in the Senate have limited ability to force action, as Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress.