Live data from Hacker News

Judge blocks Pentagon effort to 'punish' Anthropic with supply chain risk label

cnn.com

11–20 of 262 posts

Re: Judge blocks Pentagon effort to 'punish' Anthropic with supply chain risk label

#11
post #8

Is the practical outcome much different? I doubt they'll get contracts either way, so the labelling was just a formality. If anything it seems the label was just intended to give a veneer of legitimacy to the admin by using an existing mechanism and terminology, rather than saying "we're going to block your access because we feel like it".

It's a strong signal that the government cannot strong arm privates.

Re: Judge blocks Pentagon effort to 'punish' Anthropic with supply chain risk label

#12
post #8

Is the practical outcome much different? I doubt they'll get contracts either way, so the labelling was just a formality. If anything it seems the label was just intended to give a veneer of legitimacy to the admin by using an existing mechanism and terminology, rather than saying "we're going to block your access because we feel like it".

The Supply Chain Risk label requires every single company in the supply chain of a product or service provided to the US Government to either drop Anthropic or get dropped themselves. This is not just suppliers, but also includes suppliers of suppliers all the way down. This is a much larger chunk of the economy (approaching 100%) than the Pentagon/DOW.

Re: Judge blocks Pentagon effort to 'punish' Anthropic with supply chain risk label

#13
post #8

Is the practical outcome much different? I doubt they'll get contracts either way, so the labelling was just a formality. If anything it seems the label was just intended to give a veneer of legitimacy to the admin by using an existing mechanism and terminology, rather than saying "we're going to block your access because we feel like it".

The point of the supply chain risk designation was not just to have the DoD stop using Anthropic (they could have done that by just cancelling the contract). Their intended effect was to force every company that sells to the US government, no matter how indirectly, to not use Anthropic in any way, which would effectively destroy them because almost every company is in the supply chain (for example my company is https://calaveras.ai/ because we sell to AI companies who in turn sell to DoD).

Re: Judge blocks Pentagon effort to 'punish' Anthropic with supply chain risk label

#14

What's the point of a supply chain risk distinction if you can't mark a company as a risk if they express that they will be a risk?

Well, you could also say what's the point of laws when courts can interpret them however they like? There's never a neat answer in such multi-valent systems, is there?

Re: Judge blocks Pentagon effort to 'punish' Anthropic with supply chain risk label

#15

What's the point of a supply chain risk distinction if you can't mark a company as a risk if they express that they will be a risk?

What's the point of the Constitution when the government can ignore it at their discretion?

Re: Judge blocks Pentagon effort to 'punish' Anthropic with supply chain risk label

#17
post #8

Is the practical outcome much different? I doubt they'll get contracts either way, so the labelling was just a formality. If anything it seems the label was just intended to give a veneer of legitimacy to the admin by using an existing mechanism and terminology, rather than saying "we're going to block your access because we feel like it".

The point of the supply chain risk designation was not just to have the DoD stop using Anthropic (they could have done that by just cancelling the contract). Their intended effect was to force every company that sells to the US government, no matter how indirectly, to not use Anthropic in any way, which would effectively destroy them because almost every company is in the supply chain (for example my company is https…

I understand that, but I suspect the admin will now just have an informal, not-written-down policy that does exactly the same thing.

Re: Judge blocks Pentagon effort to 'punish' Anthropic with supply chain risk label

#18
post #8

Is the practical outcome much different? I doubt they'll get contracts either way, so the labelling was just a formality. If anything it seems the label was just intended to give a veneer of legitimacy to the admin by using an existing mechanism and terminology, rather than saying "we're going to block your access because we feel like it".

The Supply Chain Risk label requires every single company in the supply chain of a product or service provided to the US Government to either drop Anthropic or get dropped themselves. This is not just suppliers, but also includes suppliers of suppliers all the way down. This is a much larger chunk of the economy (approaching 100%) than the Pentagon/DOW.

Yes, but

> I suspect the admin will now just have an informal, not-written-down policy that does exactly the same thing.

Re: Judge blocks Pentagon effort to 'punish' Anthropic with supply chain risk label

#20
post #8

Is the practical outcome much different? I doubt they'll get contracts either way, so the labelling was just a formality. If anything it seems the label was just intended to give a veneer of legitimacy to the admin by using an existing mechanism and terminology, rather than saying "we're going to block your access because we feel like it".

It's a strong signal that the government cannot strong arm privates.

Though of course that would require the government to respect the rule of law
Post reply on HN