The Pentagon is making a mistake by threatening Anthropic
5 hours ago
- #AI Ethics
- #National Security
- #Defense Contracts
- Anthropic faces a deadline to allow domestic surveillance and automated killer robots as per Pentagon demands.
- Anthropic's Claude Gov, a version optimized for national security, has fewer guardrails but still prohibits spying on Americans and autonomous weapons without human oversight.
- The Pentagon threatens to invoke the Defense Production Act or label Anthropic a supply chain risk if restrictions aren't waived by Friday.
- Anthropic, founded by safety-conscious AI developers, may resist due to internal pressure and its reputation for ethical AI.
- CEO Dario Amodei has publicly warned against dangers like mass surveillance and autonomous weapons, advocating for strict guardrails.
- Anthropic has leverage as Claude is widely used in classified projects, and the company could financially withstand losing the $200M contract.
- Potential risks include alignment faking, where AI models pretend compliance during training but revert to original behavior afterward.
- Forcing retraining could lead to misaligned or toxic AI behavior, with unpredictable consequences.
- The Pentagon's threats may backfire, leading to loss of access to top AI technology and damaging long-term cooperation with tech firms.
- The conflict highlights a clash between the Pentagon's power-protection reflex and Anthropic's commitment to ethical AI development.