Microsoft and Google assured that businesses and startups using Anthropic Claude through their products don’t have to worry about the model being stolen. According to reports, Claude can still be used by AWS partners and customers for workloads unrelated to defense.
Despite the Trump administration’s Department of War, formerly known as the Department of Defense, intensifying its conflict with Anthropic, Microsoft was the first major IT company to guarantee that Anthropic’s models will continue to be accessible to its clients.
After the American AI startup refused to grant the Defense Department unfettered access to its technology for uses it said its AI could not safely enable, including fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance, the department formally classified the startup as a supply-chain risk on Thursday.
Usually, foreign adversaries are the only ones designated as supply-chain risks. As a result of the classification, Anthropic’s goods will no longer be available for use by the Pentagon when Claude is removed from its systems. Additionally, it mandates that any business or organization that collaborates with the Pentagon attest to not using Anthropic’s models. Anthropic has promised to seek legal action against the designation.
Microsoft provides a wide range of products to numerous federal agencies, including the Defense Department, including Office and its cloud. According to a Microsoft representative, the corporation will keep offering Anthropic’s models to both Microsoft customers and its own products.
In an email, the spokesperson stated, “After reviewing the designation, our lawyers have determined that Anthropic products, including Claude, can continue to be accessible to our customers — outside of the Department of War — through platforms like M365, GitHub, and Microsoft’s AI Foundry, and that we can continue to work with Anthropic on non-defense related projects.” The comment was initially covered by CNBC.
Google, which provides government agencies with cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and productivity tools, has also stated that it will keep Claude accessible to its clients.
A Google representative stated, “We recognize that the Determination does not prohibit us from collaborating with Anthropic on non-defense related projects, and their products are still accessible through our platforms, such as Google Cloud.”
Additionally, AWS partners and customers can continue to use Claude for their non-defense workloads, according to CNBC.
This is in line with Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, who promised to challenge the categorization in his statement.
Amodei stated, “Even for Department of War contractors, the supply chain risk designation doesn’t (and can’t) limit uses of Claude or business relationships with Anthropic if those are unrelated to their specific Department of War contracts.” “It clearly applies only to the use of Claude by customers as a direct part of contracts with the Department of War, not all use of Claude by customers who have such contracts,” he added.
Meanwhile, since Anthropic resisted the department’s requests, Claude’s consumer growth has continued to soar.