{"id":94844,"date":"2026-03-02T16:03:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T13:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=94844"},"modified":"2026-03-02T16:05:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T13:05:20","slug":"claude-surpasses-chatgpt-in-app-store-amid-pentagon-contract-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/claude-surpasses-chatgpt-in-app-store-amid-pentagon-contract-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"Claude Surpasses ChatGPT in App Store Amid Pentagon Contract Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Claude chatbot from Anthropic has claimed the top spot among free apps in the US App Store, pushing OpenAI&#8217;s ChatGPT to second place.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"313\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-1ec69a20ad614991-7672764445456869-1024x313.png\" alt=\"image\" class=\"wp-image-276061\" srcset=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-1ec69a20ad614991-7672764445456869-1024x313.png 1024w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-1ec69a20ad614991-7672764445456869-300x92.png 300w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-1ec69a20ad614991-7672764445456869-768x235.png 768w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-1ec69a20ad614991-7672764445456869.png 1503w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/iphone\/charts\/36?chart=top-free\">App Store<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The change in leadership was driven by a mass exodus of ChatGPT users. Earlier, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced a collaboration with the US Department of Defense, agreeing to deploy its AI models in classified military networks.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Tonight, we reached an agreement with the Department of War to deploy our models in their classified network.<\/p>\n<p>In all of our interactions, the DoW displayed a deep respect for safety and a desire to partner to achieve the best possible outcome.<\/p>\n<p>AI safety and wide distribution of\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sam Altman (@sama) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sama\/status\/2027578508042723599?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 28, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei publicly refused such contracts. He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.anthropic.com\/news\/statement-department-of-war\">prohibited<\/a> the government from using the developer&#8217;s neural networks for mass surveillance and autonomous weapon creation. <\/p>\n<p>US President Donald Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/us-government-to-cease-use-of-anthropic-technologies\">criticised<\/a> Anthropic&#8217;s decision, accusing the team of attempting to dictate terms to the defense department. Subsequently, the Pentagon terminated contracts with the company and blacklisted it as a &#8220;national security threat.&#8221; Within hours, OpenAI <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/27\/technology\/openai-agreement-pentagon-ai.html\">secured<\/a> the military contract.<\/p>\n<p>The company&#8217;s decision sparked a backlash in the community. A post on <a href=\"http:\/\/reddit.com\/r\/ChatGPT\/comments\/1rgth8p\/cancel_and_delete_chatgpt\/\">Reddit<\/a> calling for a boycott of the chatbot garnered 30,000 likes, while the themed Instagram account quitGPT <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/quitgpt\/\">attracted<\/a> 78,000 followers. <\/p>\n<p>More than 700 employees from Google and OpenAI also <a href=\"https:\/\/notdivided.org\/\">signed<\/a> an open letter. The document urged the rejection of AI use in surveillance systems or for combat tasks without direct human oversight.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Outside Anthropic&#8217;s office in SF\u2026 intense moment! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8uBPfZi0nc\">pic.twitter.com\/8uBPfZi0nc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Roy E. Bahat (@roybahat) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/roybahat\/status\/2027455052655534440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 27, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>An Anthropic representative told <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/claude-overtakes-chatgpt-in-apple-app-store\">Mashable<\/a> that since January, the service&#8217;s free user base has grown by 60%, and the number of paid subscribers has doubled. Meanwhile, the daily number of new registrations has tripled.<\/p>\n<p>In February, it was revealed that SpaceX was <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/spacex-and-xai-to-compete-in-pentagons-autonomous-drone-software-contest\">involved<\/a> in a Pentagon project to develop voice-controlled autonomous drones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Claude chatbot from Anthropic has claimed the top spot among free apps in the US App Store, pushing OpenAI&#8217;s ChatGPT to second place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"Claude chatbot tops US App Store, surpassing ChatGPT amid Pentagon contract backlash.","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1434,438,1190,1421,26],"class_list":["post-94844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-anthropic","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-openai","tag-rating","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"204","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"Claude chatbot tops US App Store, surpassing ChatGPT amid Pentagon contract backlash.","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94846,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94844\/revisions\/94846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}