A federal judge ruled on Thursday the Trump administration acted unlawfully when it labeled the artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic a security risk and barred the company from working with the US government, calling the move 'illegal and baseless'.

The administration engaged in ‘unlawful retaliation in violation of the First Amendment,’ the ruling said.

The judge ruled that the Trump administration’s blacklisting of Anthropic stemmed from a “desire to make a public example out of Anthropic” for its criticism of the government.