SAN FRANCISCO, July 5 -- The version of Claude that the U.S. Department of Defense called too dangerous to give a government contract will now handle customer inquiries at the California DMV, assist Medicaid case workers navigating the largest state health program in the country, and scan state cybersecurity systems for vulnerabilities.

On June 29, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a deal with Anthropic giving every California state agency and local government access to Claude at a 50 percent discount, along with free workforce training and on-call developer support from Anthropic engineers. The agreement makes Claude the first AI productivity tool offered statewide through California's centralized software purchasing portal. What the anno...