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Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and Anthropic have made a deal<\/a> that allows California government agencies to use Claude at a discounted price. This agreement comes at a time when businesses are struggling<\/a> to manage the hefty costs of enterprise subscriptions to AI tools.<\/p>\n Under the deal, all state agencies and local governments will have access to Claude, Anthropic\u2019s AI chatbot, as well as training and support from Anthropic. A press release from the Governor\u2019s office says that Claude will help state employees draft documents and analyze information.<\/p>\n \u201cAI should not replace the human work of government; it should help our workers move faster, solve problems more effectively, and deliver better results for Californians,\u201d Governor Newsom said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n This deal follows Newsom\u2019s March executive order<\/a> that intends to accelerate the use of AI \u201cto make government more efficient\u201d while also maintaining stronger safety standards.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile others in Washington are designing policy and creating contracts in the shadow of misuse, we\u2019re focused on doing this the right way,\u201d Newsom said<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n As Anthropic forges a closer relationship with the state of California, the federal government has made an enemy out of the OpenAI rival. Earlier this year, Anthropic and the U.S. Department of Defense clashed<\/a> over a contract that would give the government agency permission to deploy Claude for any lawful use. Anthropic sought to explicitly carve out protections that prevent the government from using its technology to surveil Americans or deploy autonomous weapons without human oversight. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused, and the agency signed a deal with OpenAI instead. The government went as far as to declare Anthropic a \u201csupply-chain risk<\/a>,\u201d preventing the company from working with any other Pentagon contractors.<\/p>\n While the state\u2019s path clearly diverges from the actions of the federal government, California\u2019s CIO and Department of Technology director Chris Given told POLITICO<\/a> that the supply-chain risk designation \u201cjust didn\u2019t come up\u201d while negotiating this Anthropic contract.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n