White House officials reportedly frustrated by Anthropic's law enforcement AI limits

"On Tuesday, Semafor reported that Anthropic faces growing hostility from the Trump administration over the AI company's restrictions on law enforcement uses of its Claude models. Two senior White House officials told the outlet that federal contractors working with agencies like the FBI and Secret Service have run into roadblocks when attempting to use Claude for surveillance tasks. The friction stems from Anthropic's usage policies that prohibit domestic surveillance applications."

"The officials, who spoke to Semafor anonymously, said they worry that Anthropic enforces its policies selectively based on politics and uses vague terminology that allows for a broad interpretation of its rules. The restrictions affect private contractors working with law enforcement agencies who need AI models for their work. In some cases, Anthropic's Claude models are the only AI systems cleared for top-secret security situations through Amazon Web Services' GovCloud, according to the officials."

"Anthropic offers a specific service for national security customers and made a deal with the federal government to provide its services to agencies for a nominal $1 fee. The company also works with the Department of Defense, though its policies still prohibit the use of its models for weapons development. In August, OpenAI announced a competing agreement to supply more than 2 million federal executive branch workers with ChatGPT Enterprise access for $1 per agency for one year."

Anthropic bars domestic surveillance uses of its Claude models, prompting hostility from the Trump administration. White House officials said federal contractors with agencies like the FBI and Secret Service encountered roadblocks when attempting to use Claude for surveillance. The company enforces usage policies that prohibit domestic surveillance and bar models from weapons development. Some contractors say Claude is the only model cleared for top-secret situations through Amazon Web Services' GovCloud. Anthropic made a deal to provide services to federal agencies for a nominal $1 fee while OpenAI secured a competing agreement to supply ChatGPT Enterprise to federal workers.

Read at Ars Technica