Report: Anthropic’s refusal to allow Claude to be used for surveillance irks White House
The Trump administration’s warm embrace of AI companies has led to many federal agencies using chatbots from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic for many different applications.
Like its competitors, Anthropic is offering the government version of its chatbot — Claude for Government — for $1 per year to any agency that requests it, through the General Services Administration.
Semafor reports that contractors working for federal law enforcement agencies have encountered an obstacle: Anthropic’s policies don’t permit law enforcement to use Claude for surveillance applications. According to the report, Anthropic’s refusal to carve out an exception for federal law enforcement applications has “deepened hostility to the company” in the White House.
Under a section in Anthropic’s policy titled, “Do Not Use for Criminal Justice, Censorship, Surveillance, or Prohibited Law Enforcement Purposes,” the company explicitly prohibits the use of its products to “target or track a person’s physical location, emotional state, or communication without their consent, including using our products for facial recognition, battlefield management applications or predictive policing.”
Semafor reports that contractors working for federal law enforcement agencies have encountered an obstacle: Anthropic’s policies don’t permit law enforcement to use Claude for surveillance applications. According to the report, Anthropic’s refusal to carve out an exception for federal law enforcement applications has “deepened hostility to the company” in the White House.
Under a section in Anthropic’s policy titled, “Do Not Use for Criminal Justice, Censorship, Surveillance, or Prohibited Law Enforcement Purposes,” the company explicitly prohibits the use of its products to “target or track a person’s physical location, emotional state, or communication without their consent, including using our products for facial recognition, battlefield management applications or predictive policing.”
