Claude, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot from Anthropic that has been at odds with the U.S. Donald Trump administration, experienced a temporary access error on the 2nd (local time) due to a surge in users.
Bloomberg reported that morning that Claude's consumer application (app) service was temporarily suspended. Anthropic said, "There was unprecedented demand for the Claude service last week, which increased usage," and noted that all issues were resolved at about 10:50 a.m. Eastern time that day.
Claude had not been as well known as ChatGPT or Gemini by AI chatbot standards, but it recently began drawing attention from general users as its developer, Anthropic, clashed with the Trump administration over the scope of military AI use. As of the 28th of last month, Claude ranked No. 1 among free apps in the U.S. Apple App Store. The number of free users has risen more than 60% since January, and the number of paid subscribers has doubled this year.
The U.S. Department of Defense demanded that the military use scope be fully opened for Claude, effectively the only AI model available on U.S. military classified systems, but Anthropic has opposed using AI for mass surveillance of its own citizens or for fully autonomous weapons. As the two sides failed to narrow their differences, President Trump and the Department of Defense ultimately designated Anthropic as a "supply chain risk" corporations and ordered a halt to federal agency use.
Accordingly, the Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance Agency declared that day that they would cease using all Anthropic technologies, including Claude.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent emphasized on social media (SNS), "During President Trump's tenure, no private company will be able to dictate the terms of national security."
However, usage is surging as users who agree with Anthropic's restrictions on AI use scope newly sign up for Claude or apply for paid subscriptions. Right after Anthropic was notified it would be removed from government use, OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, signed a new agreement with the Department of Defense, and users opposed to this launched a boycott, with the number of ChatGPT mobile app deletions on the 28th of last month (local time) alone jumping 295% from the previous day, TechCrunch reported, citing Sensor Tower data.