Claude AI App Tops Apple Downloads After Pentagon Blacklisting

An artificial intelligence chatbot called Claude became the most downloaded app in Apple's App Store over the weekend, just days after the Pentagon blacklisted the company that makes it.

Anthropic, the San Francisco-based company behind Claude, landed on the Pentagon's blacklist after refusing to let the military use its AI tool for autonomous weapons or to surveil U.S. citizens. 

Claude has been popular in the tech world for months because of its strong coding abilities, but it's only recently started catching on with everyday users. The app still has ground to cover. ChatGPT, the most well-known AI chatbot, has around 900 million people using it each week.

On Android phones, ChatGPT remains the top AI download, though Claude has climbed to fourth place in the Google Play Store.

The app lets users ask questions, get help with writing, analyze documents, and generate code, similar to other AI chatbots. It's free to use with paid upgrades available for heavier users.