> In the abstract, it could be argued that corporates influencing or attempting to influence the policy defined by the citizenry’s democratically elected representatives subverts the will of the people.

So we should make lobbying by corporations illegal? Because is not lobbying "influencing or attempting to influence" policy?

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbying

Further Anthropic was not trying to 'influence or attempt to influence policy': they simply had restrictions on what their service(s) could be used for, which was written into a contract that the (current) administration agreed to. The government was free to have whatever policy it wanted.

If the government didn't like the conditions of the contract then the government could try to get Anthropic to agree to change the terms, or cancel the contract all together.

As one comment put it: Can the government force a company that runs a nuclear power plant force that company to make a nuclear weapon?

If Anthropic wants non-weapon/military use of their service, and publicly states that and puts that into the terms of service, can they be forced to? Can the government force a Quaker to pick up a gun?

* https://www.renofriends.org/the-peace-testimony-and-military...

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quakers

Or can the government force a Quaker to manufacture a gun? Force a sale of steel that the Quaker manufactures to a weapons maker? (There's a whole spectrum of 'complicity' here.)