Claude’s popularity surges after Pentagon blacklist, topping app charts in US and UK

Anthropic’s Claude leapt to the top of Apple’s free app rankings in the U.S. and rose sharply in the U.K. after the Pentagon blacklisted the startup over ethics restrictions tied to mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. The surge followed the Defense Department’s pivot to OpenAI, a move that drew skepticism from experts who questioned how its safeguards differ from Anthropic’s. Anthropic reported record sign-ups and brief service outages amid “unprecedented demand,” saying free active users rose more than 60% and paid subscribers more than doubled. CEO Dario Amodei maintained the company’s red lines, disputing Washington’s authority to label Anthropic a supply-chain risk, while Donald Trump castigated the firm and backed the OpenAI deal. OpenAI’s Sam Altman said its tools won’t be used for autonomous killing systems or mass surveillance, though critics noted the overlap with Anthropic’s stated limits.

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