Code for America, Anthropic Partner on AI Tools for SNAP Caseworkers

WASHINGTON — Code for America has partnered with Anthropic to develop artificial intelligence tools designed to assist caseworkers administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to a report by StateScoop.

The collaboration pairs one of the nation’s most prominent civic technology nonprofits with Anthropic, maker of the Claude AI system, to streamline workflows for the caseworkers who process SNAP applications and manage benefits for millions of Americans.

SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, is the largest federal nutrition assistance program in the United States, serving more than 42 million Americans monthly. Caseworkers who administer the program at the state and county level are often burdened with high caseloads and complex eligibility determinations, making administrative efficiency a recurring focus of technology modernization efforts.

Code for America, a San Francisco-based nonprofit founded in 2009, has long focused on improving government service delivery through technology. The organization has previously worked on tools to simplify benefits enrollment and reduce administrative barriers for safety-net programs.

The partnership would bring large language model technology into direct government benefits administration. AI tools have been deployed in various federal and state government contexts, though their application to frontline caseworker operations in safety-net programs has been limited.

Anthropic, valued at $61.5 billion as of its most recent funding round, has increasingly pursued partnerships in the public sector. The San Francisco-based AI lab has positioned its Claude model as a safety-focused alternative in the enterprise and government AI market.

Digital rights advocates and legal aid organizations have raised concerns about the deployment of AI in government benefits programs, cautioning that automated tools must be carefully designed to avoid errors that could result in wrongful benefit denials or delays for eligible recipients.

Details regarding specific states participating in the initiative, implementation timelines, and the scope of AI integration into caseworker workflows were not immediately available.