Anthropic’s Claude hit by second outage in two days amid demand surge, Pentagon feud

Anthropic’s artificial intelligence chatbot Claude experienced a fresh outage on March 3, marking the second straight day of service disruption.

As of 9:43 AM, close to 250 users had flagged issues with the platform on the outage tracking website Downdetector. Visitors to the Claude website were shown a message stating: “Claude will return soon. Claude is currently experiencing a temporary service disruption.”

According to Downdetector data, around 70% of complaints were related to Claude Chat, while 16% flagged issues with the mobile app and 14% with Claude Code. Several users also took to social media to report errors, slow response times and, in some cases, a complete inability to access the service.

Anthropic’s status page said, “We are currently investigating this issue.”

The disruption comes at a time when the AI startup says it has been grappling with “unprecedented demand” for its services. The company has seen a sharp surge in usage as it faces an escalating feud with the US Defence Department over the potential use of its technology for mass surveillance and the development of autonomous weaponry.

The Pentagon has declared Anthropic a supply-chain risk, an unprecedented move against an American AI company that could have significant implications for its business.

Anthropic said the number of free users of Claude has increased by more than 60% since January, while paid subscribers have more than doubled since October.

The company has maintained that its products must not be used for surveillance or to develop fully autonomous weapons. It said that “no amount of intimidation or punishment from the Department of War will change our position.”