Inside Anthropic’s existential negotiations with the Pentagon
TL;DR
Anthropic's negotiations with the Pentagon center on the phrase 'any lawful use,' potentially allowing military AI for surveillance and autonomous weapons. The talks have become contentious, involving public disputes and media leaks.
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Anthropic's weekslong battle with the Department of Defense has played out over social media posts, admonishing public statements, and direct quotes from unnamed Pentagon officials to the news media. But the future of the $380 billion AI startup comes down to just three words: "any lawful use." The new terms, which OpenAI and xAI have reportedly already agreed to, would give the US military carte blanche to use services for mass surveillance and lethal autonomous weapons, AI that has full power to track and kill targets with no humans involved in the decision-making process.
The negotiations have turned ugly, with Pentagon CTO Emil Michael …