Welcome to the TechBrew Ride Home for Friday, March 6, 2026. I'm Brian McCullough today. Dario might need some message discipline, as Anthropic is officially designated a risk by the U.S. government.

GPT. 5.4 is here. Oracle is considering laying off a ton of people, and SoftBank is considering taking on a ton of debt both for the same reason,

an early warning system for AI job destruction, and of course the weekend long read suggestions.

Here's what you miss today in the world of tech.

The U.S. DoD says it has officially informed Anthropic leadership, the company, and its products

are deemed a supply chain risk effective immediately.

Dario Amadai says Anthropic plans to fight the DoD's risk designation in court,

claiming the DoD's letter to it has a, quote, narrow scope and apologizes for a recent leaked memo, quoting

and gadget. Amo Dye explained that the designation has a narrow scope because it only exists

to protect the government. That is why the general public and even defense department contractors

can still use Anthropics Claude Chatbot and its AI technologies.

Microsoft told CNBC that it will continue using Claude after its lawyers had concluded that it can

keep on working with Anthropic on non-defense-related projects. More on that in a second.

The CEO has also admitted that his company had productive conversations with the department over the past

few days. He said that they were looking at ways to serve the Pentagon that adheres to its two

exceptions, namely that its technology not be used for mass surveillance and the development of

fully autonomous weapons, and looking at ways to, quote, ensure a smooth transition if that's not

possible. That confirms reports

that Anthropic is back in talks with the agency in an effort to reach a new deal. In addition,

Amadai apologized for a leaked internal memo, wherein he reportedly said that Open AIs messaging

about its own deal with the department is just straight up lies, end quote. Actually, he said more than that, quoting the New York Post.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amadai has apologized for bashing the Trump administration in an

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