DOJ to Appeal Court Order Halting Trump’s Ban on Anthropic AI

The Trump administration will appeal a federal judge’s order blocking its ban on government use of Anthropic PBC’s artificial intelligence technology.

The Justice Department filed a notice in court on Thursday that it will challenge US District Judge Rita F. Lin’s ruling from last month. The San Francisco-based judge had paused the administration’s plan to sever ties with Anthropic while the legal fight continued but put her order on hold for a week to give the government a chance to appeal.

The company is suing to challenge a Defense Department declaration that Anthropic posed a threat to the US supply chain. A separate, related case from Anthropic is pending before a federal appeals court in Washington.

In the March 26 decision, Lin agreed with the company that the government’s stated reasoning for the ban — national security — was questionable. She wrote that the move instead appeared “designed to punish” Anthropic for pressing for assurances that its technology wouldn’t be used to spy on Americans or for the deployment of autonomous weapons.

The case is Anthropic v. US Department of War, 26-cv-01996, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

--With assistance from Rachel Metz and Madlin Mekelburg.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Zoe Tillman in Washington at ztillman2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Elizabeth Wasserman, Steve Stroth

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