Pentagon Labels AI Company Supply Chain Risk

April 2026

The U.S. Department of Defense designated AI company Anthropic a supply chain risk March 4, in a move the firm described as punishment in an ongoing contract dispute.

The designation will prevent the department and its contractors from using Anthropic products, including its AI model, Claude, and associated tools in their operations.

The company’s chief executive officer, Dario Amodei, said in a Feb. 26 statement that two outstanding issues had arisen in contract renegotiations with the Pentagon: the company’s insistence that its products not be used for domestic mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons systems.

The Pentagon insisted that its contract with Anthropic permits “any lawful use.”

Anthropic’s “true objective is unmistakable: to seize veto power over the operational decisions of the United States military,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a Feb. 27 social media post.

President Donald Trump said on the same day in a social media post that he had ordered the entire federal government to cease using Anthropic products within six months.

A judge in the Northern District of California granted Anthropic a preliminary injunction March 26 in a lawsuit that the firm had filed against the Defense Department. The lawsuit described the Pentagon’s designation as “unprecedented and unlawful.”

Competitor firm OpenAI announced late Feb. 27 that it had reached agreement with the Pentagon on terms of use for its products with the department.

Anthropic’s Claude overtook OpenAI’s ChatGPT in mobile app downloads for the first time following the Pentagon decision, according to mobile analytics firm Appfigures.—XIAODON LIANG 

2026 Arms Control Association Annual Meeting

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The 2026 Arms Control Association Annual Meeting was webcast from the National Press Club in D.C. on Tuesday, June 2nd. You can view the webcast recording below or on our official YouTube channel.

View the program here and the agenda below.

2026 ACA Annual Meeting Agenda

9:00 am

Welcome and Introduction of Keynote speaker

  • Thomas Countryman, ACA Board chairman and former Assistant Secretary of State for Int. Security and Nonproliferation
9:15 am

Keynote Speaker

  • Ambassador Do Hung Viet, President of the 2026 nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference (live by video)
10:05 am

Repairing the NPT Regime: Following the 2026 Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, what is the status of the treaty and what steps can be taken to reinforce its core principles and objectives?

  • Adam Scheinman, former Special Representative of the President for Nuclear Nonproliferation
  • Lynn Rusten, Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy
  • Daryl G. Kimball, ACA's Executive Director and participant in the past seven NPT Review Conferences (moderator)
11:00 am

Special Message

  • Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) Executive Secretary Robert Floyd (video recording)
11:30 am

Special Video Message from the Winners of the 2025 Arms Control Person of the Year Award

  • Libby Flatoff, ACA Program and Policy Associate (introduction)
12:05 pm

Keynote Speaker

  • John C. Wester, Archbishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on the Catholic Church's perspectives on nuclear weapons and the imperative of disarmament (live by video)
1:20 pm

Preventing Further Proliferation in the Middle East: Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia. How will the ongoing war affect nuclear policies and problems in the region?

  • Kelsey Davenport, ACA's Director for Nonproliferation Policy
  • Sharon Squassoni, research professor at George Washington University and formerly with the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, State Department, and the Congressional Research Service
  • Thomas Countryman, ACA Board Chair (moderator)
2:15 pm

Pathways Toward Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament Diplomacy: After the expiration of New START, how can the five NPT nuclear-weapons states productively engage in diplomacy to halt and reverse the arms race? What are possible formats and proposals that can inform and guide a “new era” of arms control?

  • Amy Nelson, Director for the Future Security Scenarios Lab at New America and a Senior Fellow in the Future Security Program at the New America Foundation
  • Matthew Sharp, senior nuclear fellow at the Center for Nuclear Security Policy at the Mass. Institute of Technology. 
  • Tong Zhao, Senior Fellow with the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace
  • Xiaodon Liang, ACA Senior Policy Analyst for Nuclear Weapons Policy and Disarmament (moderator)
3:00 pm

Closing Remarks and Thanks

  • Daryl Kimball, ACA Executive Director
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