Anthropic’s Claude rises to No. 2 in the App Store following Pentagon dispute

Anthropic's AI chatbot, Claude, has surged to the number two spot among free apps in Apple's US App Store, trailing only OpenAI's ChatGPT, with Google Gemini at number three. This rise in popularity follows recent public scrutiny stemming from Anthropic's difficult negotiations with the Pentagon regarding safeguards against using its AI for mass domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons. Data from SensorTower shows Claude's ranking rapidly climbed from outside the top 100 in late January to second place by Saturday. This situation is juxtaposed with former President Donald Trump directing federal agencies to halt using Anthropic products and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth labeling the company a supply-chain threat, while OpenAI announced its own Pentagon agreement that CEO Sam Altman claims includes similar safeguards.

(Source：TechCrunch)