The showdown between the US Department of War and Anthropic ended with the AI company getting ‘banned’ from being used for defense purposes. Previously, the Pentagon threatened to invoke a decades-old law that young Americans may have never heard of – the Defense Production Act – against Anthropic as part of an ultimatum demanding unrestricted military access to the company’s AI model, Claude. Here is what the law is and how it has been used in the past.
What is the Defense Production Act?
The Defense Production Act, or DPA, gives the federal government authority to direct private companies to meet the needs of national defence. The act was signed into law by President Harry S. Truman in 1950, during a period of supply shortages at the start of the Korean War. One of its key provisions of this Act allows the president to require companies to prioritise government contracts deemed necessary for national defence.
It also ensures that the private sector is producing enough of what the military or government may need during a crisis. Other provisions give the president the ability to offer loans and incentives to increase the production of critical goods, and to establish voluntary agreements with private industry.
How has it been used before?
The DPA has been used across both administrations but rarely in the context of technology companies. Both President Trump in his first term and President Biden invoked the DPA to boost medical supplies. Biden used the law during the 2022 baby formula shortage to speed up production and authorise overseas imports, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2023, Biden also invoked the DPA, using it to require companies to share safety test results and other information with the government. Trump, however, repealed that order at the start of his second term.
Going back further, the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations both used the law to ensure electricity and gas suppliers continued serving California utilities during an energy crisis. It was also invoked after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, prioritising contracts for food, water, housing and power restoration.
Why using the DPA against Anthropic would have been different
All of those past uses have one thing in common: the DPA was used to ensure the supply of physical goods or to compel companies to share information with the government. Using it against Anthropic would be something else entirely.
If the Pentagon invoked the DPA in this context, it could mean forcing Anthropic to modify Claude to remove its built-in safety restrictions, or to strip ethical limits from the company’s contract language — effectively compelling a company to produce a version of its product that it considers unsafe.
