Dario Amodei said Thursday that Anthropic plans to challenge the Department of Defense’s decision to label the AI firm a supply chain risk in court, a designation he has called “legally unsound.”

The statement comes a few hours after the DOD officially designated Anthropic a supply chain risk following a weeks-long dispute over how much control the military should have over AI systems. A supply chain risk designation can bar a company from working with the Pentagon and its contractors. Amodei drew a firm line that Anthropic’s AI will not be used for mass surveillance of Americans or for fully autonomous weapons, but the Pentagon believed it should have unrestricted access for “all lawful purposes.”

In his statement, Amodei said the vast majority of Anthropic’s customers are unaffected by the supply chain risk designation.

“With respect to our customers, it plainly applies only to the use of Claude by customers as a direct part of contracts with the Department of War, not all use of Claude by customers who…