Defense Department CTO Emil Michael on Thursday said Anthropic’s Claude artificial intelligence models would “pollute” the agency’s supply chain because they have “a different policy preference” that is baked in.

“We can’t have a company that has a different policy preference that is baked into the model through its constitution, its soul, its policy preferences, pollute the supply chain so our war fighters are getting ineffective weapons, ineffective body armor, ineffective protection,” Michael told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “That’s really where the supply chain risk designation came from.”

Anthropic is the first American company to publicly be labeled a supply chain risk, an extraordinary move that’s historically been reserved for foreign adversaries. The designation will require defense contractors and vendors to certify that they don’t use Claude in their work with the Pentagon.

The startup sued the Trump administration on Monday, calling the government’s actions “unprecedented and unlawful.” Anthropic said in a filing that the company was being harmed “irreparably,” and that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts are in jeopardy.

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