Anthropic's chatbot Claude goes down amid unprecedented demand'

"Nearly 2,000 users had reported Claude AI service disruptions at the outage's peak around 6:40 a.m. New York time, according to service-monitoring website Downdetector. Anthropic said in a statement by WhatsApp that consumer-facing surfaces such as claude.ai and the company's apps were offline. Businesses that have integrated Claude's AI models into their own systems were unaffected."

"The number of free users of Claude has increased more than 60% since January, and paid subscribers have more than doubled since October, according to Anthropic. Anthropic has stipulated that its products not be used for surveillance of Americans or to make fully autonomous weapons and said on Friday that no amount of intimidation or punishment from the Department of War will change our position."

"The Pentagon has declared Anthropic a supply-chain risk, an unprecedented move against an American company that threatens to have profound consequences for its business. The company vowed to challenge any formal notification that it's been designated a supply-chain risk in court, and its chief executive officer Dario Amodei called the move retaliatory and punitive in an interview with CBS News."

Anthropic's Claude AI chatbot and consumer applications experienced significant service disruptions early Monday, with approximately 2,000 users reporting outages at peak times. The company attributed the downtime to unprecedented demand for its services over the preceding week. Consumer-facing platforms including claude.ai and related apps went offline, though business integrations remained unaffected. Services were restored within hours. This outage occurred amid substantial growth in Claude's user base, with free users increasing over 60% since January and paid subscribers more than doubling since October. The service disruptions coincided with escalating tensions between Anthropic and the U.S. Defense Department, which designated the company a supply-chain risk—an unprecedented action against an American firm.

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