Tech workers urge DOD, Congress to roll back human labeling as supply chain risk

Hundreds of tech workers have signed an open letter urging the Department of Defense to rescind its designation of humans as a “supply chain risk.” The letter also urges Congress to intervene and “investigate whether it is appropriate to exercise these special powers against U.S. technology companies.”

The letter includes signatories from leading technology and venture capital firms, including OpenAI, Slack, IBM, Cursor, Salesforce Ventures, and more. This follows a dispute between the Department of Defense and Anthropic after the AI ​​lab last week denied the military unrestricted access to its AI systems.

Two of Anthropic’s limitations in negotiations with the Pentagon are that it does not want its technology to be used for mass surveillance of Americans or to power autonomous weapons that make targeting and firing decisions without humans. The Department of Defense said it has no plans to do such a thing, but that it should not be limited by the vendor’s rules.

President Donald Trump on Friday ordered federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s technology after a six-month transition period, after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to give in to Hegseth’s threats. Hegseth said he would handle the threat well and designate Anthropic as a supply chain risk. This is a designation typically given to foreign adversaries that blacklists AI companies from working with any agency or company that does business with the Department of Defense.

In a post on Friday, Hegseth wrote: “Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier or partner doing business with the U.S. military will be permitted to conduct any commercial activities with Anthropic.”

But a post about X doesn’t automatically make Anthropic a supply chain risk. The government must complete a risk assessment and notify Congress before military partners sever ties with Anthropic or its products. Anthropic said in a blog post that the destination was “legally unsound” and that it would “challenge the supply chain risk designation in court.”

Many in the industry see the government’s treatment of Anthropic as harsh and clear retaliation.

“When two parties cannot agree on terms, the normal course is to part ways and work with a competitor,” the open letter reads. “This situation sets a dangerous precedent. Punishing American companies for refusing to accept changes to their contracts sends a clear message to all American technology companies that they will face retaliation if they do not accept the terms demanded by the government.”

In addition to concerns about the government’s harsh treatment of Anthropic, many in the industry are still concerned about government overreach and the use of AI for malicious purposes.

OpenAI researcher Boaz Barak wrote in a social media post Monday that preventing governments from using AI for mass surveillance is his “personal boundary,” and “it should be all of us.”

Shortly after Trump publicly attacked Anthropic, OpenAI announced that it had agreed to deploy its models in classified environments at the Department of Defense. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said last week that the company has the same redline as Anthropic.

“If anything good can come from the events of last week, it is that the AI ​​industry begins to view the problem of AI being used for government abuse and surveillance of its own citizens as a catastrophic risk in itself,” Barak wrote. “We’ve done a good job of assessing, mitigating and processes for risks like bioweapons and cybersecurity. Let’s use a similar process here.”