Pentagon Pissed About Woke AI; Anthropic Faces Firing Squad Friday
We need to be worried: Political ideology is influencing which AI companies succeed
As Americans, Taxpayers & Consumers We Need to be Worried
Forget hallucinations, or which tech is best, AI has gone fully political thanks to the Trump Administration. Political ideology is driving which AI technology is picked at the Pentagon. Anything deemed “woke” by Pete Hegseth and his bro squad is out. Which means Anthropic’s Claude is on the firing line, with a Friday deadline to change the policy of how its tech can be used.
But even more important is what happens next. If Anthropic is thrown out, no one else working with the Defense Department can use Anthropic, either. By prohibiting the use of Anthropic by the entire swath of Pentagon suppliers — which could happen as early as Friday — it significantly impacts the future earnings of every company in the AI race.
As Americans, taxpayers and consumers, we need to be worried. Very, very worried. When the government influences which businesses win and lose, the idea of a free market is destroyed.
As taxpayers we need to understand why Trump is trying to stop Anthropic.
As consumers, this will ultimately impact what’s available for us to buy
Photo by Filip Andrejevic on Unsplash
Removing Anthropic gives a significant competitive advantage to its competitors — OpenAI, Google, Palantir and xAI, a.k.a Elon Musk. Funny how all of the heads of these companies have been kissing up to Trump. But far worse: all are down with allowing their tech to be used at the discretion of the Military. That’s terrifying.
Hegseth is playing with the free market by demanding the Pentagon has free rein to use Anthropic’s tech however it wants. The DoD is at odds with Anthropic over it’s usage guidelines, which prohibits the use of Claude for:
domestic surveillance
autonomous lethal activities
Issues between the Administration and Anthropic started to surface publicly after Claude was used in January in the operation to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
How Anthropic is Different
Anthropic’s Claude is the only LLM in the market that can be used on classified material, which is something obviously needed at the Defense Department.
Anthropic’s CEO is the only AI tech exec who’s calling out the need for regulations to prevent harm from AI.
It Won’t be Hard for Hegseth to Boot Anthropic
Despite these differences, which seem like they’d be important considerations, Trump and his cronies have already paved the way for Hegseth to push out Anthropic.
David Sacks, Trump’s AI czar, has said he opposes “woke” AI
Trump signed an executive order in July banning the use of “woke” chatbots
It certainly appears Anthropic is on its way out, despite a $200 million contract that doesn’t expire until next year. Stay tuned.
