California, Aug. 28 -- A US federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from blacklisting AI startup Anthropic, ruling that the action against the company was unlawful.

The Trump administration labelled the AI start-up a security risk and prohibited the company from working with the US government. However, in a 59-page ruling, Judge Rita Lin of the US District Court for the Northern District of California stated that the government had unlawfully retaliated against Anthropic "for constitutionally protected expressive activities" after the company spoke out about how its technology should be used, The New York Times reported.

"The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government...