CDT Speaks Out for AI Safeguards and Surveillance Limits in Anthropic-Pentagon Fight
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As the Pentagon’s heated, unprecedented battle with Anthropic over government uses of the company’s products — and OpenAI’s parallel negotiations — have unfolded, CDT has raised the alarm on the profound privacy, civil liberties, and free market issues at stake.
Early on, we questioned the legality of ordering all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s technology and highlighted the events’ gravity: “The President is wielding the full weight of the federal government to blacklist a company for taking a narrowly-tailored, principled stance to restrict some of the most extreme uses of AI you could imagine”, CDT President and CEO Alexandra Reeve Givens told AFP. “This action sets a dangerous precedent. It chills private companies’ ability to engage frankly with the government about appropriate uses of their technology.” And at Politico, CDT’s Samir Jain argued that the actions run counter to the Administration’s stated goal of advancing U.S. AI leadership, calling them “another dimension through which American policy is becoming incoherent on AI.”
When the Pentagon further retaliated against Anthropic by designating the company a supply-chain risk, we convened leaders in national security, business, civil society, and technology, across parties and ideologies, to speak out in opposition. The coalition called on Congress to set red lines and defend the future of American innovation, the rule of law, and the constitutional boundaries of executive power.
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At the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, Anthropic has challenged its designation as a supply-chain risk. CDT and the ACLU filed a brief in support, urging the court to stop the government from so disproportionately punishing the company for maintaining its basic terms of service. We explained that Anthropic’s position is vital in light of the dangers posed by AI tools when applied to immense datasets containing sensitive information — and that people in the U.S. deserve lasting legislative solutions addressing the inadequacies in U.S. privacy law that the government readily exploits. As CDT’s Greg Nojeim told CNET, AI surveillance is "not the kind of conduct that the military should be able to self-authorize."
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— As the federal government appears to reopen questions around foreign involvement and impact in the 2020 election, we marshalled the facts as they’ve been reported and assessed around various claims.
— In advance of the March 5 House Energy and Commerce markup of bills intended to protect children online, CDT sent a letter explaining the privacy and free expression risks presented by several of the pieces of legislation before the Committee. The analysis follows our testimony and separate letters related to CDT’s concerns about the bills.
— In an amicus brief in Chatrie v. United States, CDT and other civil society organizations called on the Supreme Court to reject an overbroad “geofence” warrant that was used to gather location data on everyone in an area. We argue that the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement protects electronic location data, and that approving this warrant would open the door to problematic “reverse warrants.”
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 | Graphic for CDT's Spring Fling. Yellow and pink petals on a gray background with Spring Fling in pixelated green and blue text.
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| CDT "In Person"
— Mark your calendars! CDT’s 2026 Spring Fling will take place on Monday, March 30th from 7:00-10:00 pm at Crimson Whiskey Bar in Washington, DC. The event brings together over 500 privacy and AI leaders from government, industry, and civil society for a celebratory night alongside IAPP’s Global Summit. Visit our event page to purchase tickets and learn more about special discounted passes to Spring Fling and LGBT Tech’s Heated Privacy.
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— Don’t miss the newest episode of CDT's podcast, Tech Talks! In this episode, CDT’s Kate Ruane and Riana Pfefferkorn, Policy Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and CDT Advisory Council member, discuss the controversy surrounding Grok AI and the evolving responsibilities of AI developers.
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— CDT’s Miranda Bogen told Time, “As AI models implement memory, they initially appear to be more helpful. But the longer conversations tend to go, the more fragile the guardrails seem to become. When people are engaging deeply over days or weeks, I don't think we know anywhere near enough about the prevalence of unfortunate events where people are drawn into acute mental health crises.”
— At Mother Jones, CDT’s Tom Bowman discussed government efforts to consolidate Americans’ travel records: “Purchasing all of this information from a commercial intermediary like a data broker really undermines and weakens the Fourth Amendment protections in practice,” he said. “Frankly, the rule should be simple: If the government would need a warrant to compel the data, it should not be able to buy it instead. But that’s exactly what the government is seeking to do.”
— In an op-ed for Tech Policy Press, CDT’s Aliya Bhatia and Michal Luria argued that Congress risks advancing bills intended to protect kids’ online safety that are neither effective nor in line with what CDT research shows parents and teens actually want.
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Partner SpotlightCDT is excited to welcome the newest members of our 2026 Advisory Council. Our Advisory Council brings together a wide range of experts who provide forward-looking perspectives that will help guide CDT’s work at the intersection of technology, policy, and democracy during a pivotal year for digital governance.
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 | Nick Sullivan, smiling wearing a collared shirt in front of a light-colored backdrop.
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| Staff Spotlight
How long have you been working in digital rights?
I have been working in digital rights for 10+ years, primarily through building and standardizing security and privacy tech that supports open, safe access to the internet.
What do you want people to know about your area of focus in tech policy?
My focus is on cryptography and internet security standards: good policy should strengthen privacy and security by default, rely on open standards and measurable outcomes, and avoid “quick fixes” that weaken encryption or create systemic risk (especially as we transition to post-quantum systems).
What is the best book you've read recently?
Eaten by the Internet, edited by Corinne Cath.
Cats or dogs?
Plants… if that counts. Very low-maintenance and terrible at fetching.
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