Technology — Pentagon feuds with Anthropic

View Online Technology Technology The Big Story  Anthropic on shaky ground with Pentagon amid feud Anthropic has increasingly found itself at odds with the Pentagon over how its AI model Claude can be deployed in military operations following disclosure about its use in the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro last month. © Richard Drew, Associated Press The AI company is one of several firms that secured a massive contract with the Defense Department (DOD) last summer amid a broader push by the Trump administration to boost AI adoption.   But the latest dispute has left its relationship with the Pentagon on shaky terms, threatening the future of the contract and sparking a broader ethics battle over the safe application of AI models in warzones increasingly dominated by cyber attacks, robots and drones.    Sarah Kreps, the director of the Tech Policy Institute in the Cornell Brooks School of Public Policy, said that Anthropic has been "going in the direction of enterprise, and that, I think, does open them up to these questions of how enterprises are using these models."   "It makes it much more difficult to maintain control once you've handed these models over to that kind of enterprise-level use," Kreps said in an interview with The Hill.    "What I've seen in other tech sectors, which is when you grow so quickly, which they have, even if your goal is not to move quickly and break things, things are going to break. And then you have to figure out what to do," she added.   The Pentagon confirmed Monday that it was reviewing its relationship with Anthropic amid a long-brewing dispute over the AI firm's usage policy, which bars the use of Claude to conduct mass surveillance or weapons development.   "Our nation requires that our partners be willing to help our warfighters win in any fight. Ultimately, this is about our troops and the safety of the American people," chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a Monday statement.   Anthropic was one of several leading AI companies that scored a contract with DOD for up to $200 million last July, alongside Google, OpenAI and Elon Musk's xAI.    As the Pentagon has continued its push to embrace the technology, it has also brought several models onto its new bespoke AI platform, GenAI.mil.   Google and xAI joined the platform in December, while OpenAI announced last week that ChatGPT would also be made available. Anthropic notably has not been added to the platform.   Check out the full report at TheHill.com. Welcome to The Hill's Technology newsletter, I'm Julia Shapero — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here. 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The senator touted California’s Billionaire Tax Act, which would charge the state's 200 billionaires …  Full Story The Refresh  News we've flagged from the intersection of tech and other topics: Altman and Amodei share a moment of awkwardness at India's big AI summit (TechCrunch) New York Governor Hochul pulls robotaxi expansion proposal (Reuters) In Other News  Branch out with other reads on The Hill: Gates cancels high-profile AI speech amid Epstein backlash Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates canceled a speech at India's AI Impact Summit on Thursday amid an ongoing backlash over his ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. "After careful consideration and to ensure the focus remained on the AI Summit’s key priorities, Mr. Gates did not deliver the keynote address at the AI Summit," the Gates Foundation said in a statement. The organization said it was instead represented … Full Story   You're all caught up. 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