Appeals Court Lets the Pentagon Designate Anthropic a Supply-Chain Risk
Appeals Court Lets the Pentagon Designate Anthropic a Supply-Chain Risk
上诉法院裁定五角大楼可将 Anthropic 列为供应链风险对象
Anthropic lost a legal battle to overturn one of the supply-chain risk labels that the US Department of Defense slapped on the company, as a federal appeals court in DC on Friday refused to second-guess the Trump administration. Anthropic 在推翻美国国防部对其施加的供应链风险标签的法律诉讼中败诉。周五，华盛顿特区联邦上诉法院拒绝推翻特朗普政府的这一决定。
“The department had ample support for its conclusion that the continued integration of Claude into the department’s information systems, by the department or its contractors, presented a statutorily covered national-security risk,” the judges wrote in a majority opinion. “As Anthropic admits, the company encodes restrictions into Claude that prevent the model from performing tasks that Anthropic wishes to prevent.” 法官在多数意见书中写道：“国防部有充分的证据支持其结论，即由该部门或其承包商将 Claude 继续整合到国防部信息系统中，构成了法律所涵盖的国家安全风险。正如 Anthropic 所承认的那样，该公司在 Claude 中设置了限制，以防止该模型执行 Anthropic 希望禁止的任务。”
Anthropic spokesperson Danielle Cohen says the company remains confident in its position and is considering all options. That could include appealing to a broader panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals or the US Supreme Court. Anthropic 发言人 Danielle Cohen 表示，公司对其立场保持信心，并正在考虑所有选择。这可能包括向华盛顿特区巡回上诉法院的全体法官小组或美国最高法院提出上诉。
Earlier this year, the Pentagon sanctioned Anthropic under a pair of separate supply-chain laws to remove the company’s Claude AI models from the military and other parts of the federal government by this month. Anthropic executives have said that the company would not allow the government to deploy its current AI models to support autonomous weapons or domestic surveillance. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth deemed the stance a significant national security risk. 今年早些时候，五角大楼根据两项独立的供应链法律对 Anthropic 实施了制裁，要求在本月前将该公司的 Claude AI 模型从军队及联邦政府的其他部门中移除。Anthropic 高管曾表示，公司不允许政府部署其现有的 AI 模型来支持自主武器或国内监控。国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯（Pete Hegseth）认为这一立场构成了重大的国家安全风险。
The laws designating Anthropic had to be challenged in separate courts. A federal judge in San Francisco tossed out one of the supply-chain risk labels in March and confirmed that decision last month, but Friday’s ruling means the other one will stay in place indefinitely, meaning the Pentagon’s blocking of Anthropic can continue. Both rulings face the prospect of years of appeals before being fully resolved. 针对 Anthropic 的法律认定必须在不同的法院分别提出质疑。旧金山的一名联邦法官在 3 月份驳回了其中一项供应链风险标签，并于上个月确认了该决定，但周五的裁决意味着另一项标签将无限期保留，这意味着五角大楼对 Anthropic 的封锁可以继续。这两项裁决在最终解决之前，都可能面临长达数年的上诉过程。
In the immediate aftermath of the designations, Anthropic said it lost out on revenue because customers were concerned about doing business with a government pariah. Anthropic hasn’t provided further updates about how the designations have affected its bottom line. But the company has generally touted growing sales in recent months and is moving toward a potential initial public offering of its shares later this year. 在被列入名单后，Anthropic 立即表示其收入受到损失，因为客户担心与一个被政府“排斥”的企业做生意。Anthropic 尚未提供有关这些认定如何影响其财务状况的进一步更新。但该公司近几个月来总体上一直在宣传其销售额的增长，并正朝着今年晚些时候可能进行的首次公开募股（IPO）迈进。
Meanwhile, the Pentagon hasn’t provided detailed updates about its progress in replacing Claude with alternatives such as SpaceX’s Grok, Google’s Gemini, or OpenAI’s GPT models. Some employees at Google and OpenAI have objected to their employers striking a deal with the US military that Anthropic had rejected, citing ethical concerns. But the companies have brushed aside protests and described supporting the US government as crucial. 与此同时，五角大楼尚未提供关于用 SpaceX 的 Grok、Google 的 Gemini 或 OpenAI 的 GPT 模型等替代品取代 Claude 的进展详情。Google 和 OpenAI 的一些员工出于道德考虑，反对其雇主与美国军方达成 Anthropic 所拒绝的协议。但这些公司对抗议不予理会，并称支持美国政府至关重要。
The new decision by a US appeals court in Washington, DC, was somewhat expected. In April the same panel declined to temporarily block the supply-chain-risk designation after finding that Anthropic failed to meet “stringent requirements” for an immediate reprieve. 美国华盛顿特区上诉法院的这一新裁决在某种程度上是意料之中的。今年 4 月，同一法官小组曾拒绝暂时阻止该供应链风险认定，理由是 Anthropic 未能满足立即获得暂缓执行的“严格要求”。
During a hearing ahead of their ruling, the three judges on the panel challenged both Anthropic and the US government on their arguments and appeared divided on how to rule on blocking the designation completely. The final decision came in 2-1. 在裁决前的听证会上，小组的三位法官对 Anthropic 和美国政府的论点提出了质疑，在如何裁定完全阻止该认定方面似乎存在分歧。最终裁决以 2 比 1 的投票结果通过。
The majority also rejected Anthropic’s claims that its due process and free speech rights were violated, saying that the government followed procedure and that the dispute was standard contract negotiations. The Pentagon “excluded Anthropic from its supply chain based on the company’s refusal to assent to a contract term that the Department deemed essential, not based on the company’s support for greater governmental regulation of AI technology,” the judges wrote. 多数派法官还驳回了 Anthropic 关于其正当程序和言论自由权受到侵犯的指控，称政府遵循了程序，且该争议属于标准的合同谈判。法官写道，五角大楼“将 Anthropic 排除在供应链之外，是基于该公司拒绝同意国防部认为至关重要的合同条款，而非基于该公司对加强政府监管 AI 技术的支持”。
Anthropic had argued that the government had acted beyond what the supply-chain law allows. But for now, the Pentagon and much of the rest of the Trump administration will be able to continue to steer clear of Claude ahead of Anthropic’s expected IPO. Anthropic 曾辩称政府的行为超出了供应链法律的授权范围。但就目前而言，在 Anthropic 预期进行 IPO 之前，五角大楼和特朗普政府的其他大部分部门将能够继续避开使用 Claude。