Microsoft says Anthropic's products can remain available to customers after security risk designation

On Thursday, Microsoft announced it will continue to offer Anthropic's artificial intelligence technologies to its clients, with the exception of the U.S. Department of War. This decision follows the federal agency's notification to Anthropic regarding its classification as a supply-chain risk. In response, Anthropic has indicated plans to contest this designation legally. A Microsoft spokesperson conveyed to CNBC that their legal team has determined that Anthropic's products, including its AI model Claude, can still be accessed by customers outside the Department of War. These products will be available through various platforms, including Microsoft 365, GitHub, and Microsoft's AI Foundry. Microsoft's technology is utilized by multiple U.S. government entities, including the Department of War, which frequently employs the Microsoft 365 suite. Recently, Microsoft announced plans to incorporate Anthropic's generative AI models into the Microsoft 365 Copilot feature, in addition to models developed by OpenAI. The Claude models from Anthropic have gained traction among software engineers for code drafting tasks and are integrated into GitHub Copilot, where they compete with OpenAI's Codex models. This situation is evolving, and updates are anticipated as the story develops.