Anthropic is making the most of its fallout with the U.S. Department of Defense—and the subsequent influx of interest in its answer engine Claude, promoting its memory import feature, which lets users port over their chat history from other AI chatbots.
The memory tool was originally debuted in October of last year, but the company is promoting it anew after integrating memory import interface tools directly into Claude’s settings and publishing a dedicated landing page over the weekend. The dedicated landing page includes demo videos and clear instructions for how users can “switch to Claude without starting over.”
The memory import feature was previously accessible to paid subscribers only, but starting today is available to all users for free.
The timing of the promotion is opportunistic. Last week, Claude shot to the top of app store ratings, hitting #1 in the free app category in the U.S. on iOS after Anthropic refused to budge in the Pentagon’s pressure campaign against the company. The company’s CEO Dario Amodei said Anthropic would not allow its tech to be used for mass surveillance of American citizens or to develop autonomous weaponry, rejecting an ultimatum levied against the lab by DoD Secretary Pete Hegseth. In response, President Trump barred the use of Anthropic products by the U.S. government. On the same day, rival OpenAI swooped in and secured a contract with the DoD.
Though OpenAI claimed in a statement that its deal terms include “more guardrails than any previous agreement for classified AI deployments, including Anthropic’s,” the decision led to immediate and widespread backlash. Consumers took to social media to bash the company, suggesting it had folded to the Trump administration’s aggressive demands. Now, a ‘Cancel ChatGPT’ trend has spurred some 1.5 million users to sign a boycott pledge on one activist site.
The outrage directed toward OpenAI has seemingly led to a spike in Claude usage. Anthropic has seen free active users surge 60% and daily signups quadruple since the start of the year. Paid subscribers have also more than doubled this year, according to the company.
Social engagements are only fanning the flames. A post on X from pop star Katy Perry last week that included a screenshot of Claude’s subscription signup page with a superimposed heart shape attracted 51,000 likes and over 5,500 reposts.
done pic.twitter.com/DkS9DmlUAR
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) February 28, 2026
Of course Anthropic hasn’t fully escaped scrutiny. X creator Jules Zucker, for example, who has 159,000 followers, called out Anthropic’s work with defense tech company Palantir, suggesting that both it and OpenAI are potentially complicit in acts of war.
