A US federal judge has ruled that sanctions imposed in February by the Trump administration against AI giant Anthropic were illegal, finding that the government had punished the artificial intelligence company for publicly criticising the Pentagon.

"The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," judge Rita Lin said in a 59-page decision on Thursday.

She barred the federal agencies named in the lawsuit from enforcing President Donald Trump's order to stop using the tools of Anthropic – creator of the Claude AI models – and overturned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's designation of the company as a "supply chain risk," a status previously reserved for foreign firms.

The ruling makes permanent the temporary suspension of sanctions ordered by the judge in March and takes effect immediately. The government may appeal.

"We welcome the court's ruling that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful," an Anthropic spokesperson said on Thursday.

The spokesperson added the company remains focused on working productively with the US government so all Americans can benefit from the technology.

The conflict arose after Anthropic refused to allow the US military to use Claude for fully autonomous lethal weapons or for the mass surveillance of Americans.

In the ruling, the judge said that the sanctions against the company "were based on a desire to make a public example out of Anthropic for its 'arrogance' in criticising the government" rather than to counter a genuine threat. (AFP)


Edited by Aaron Tam