Pentagon CTO urges Anthropic to ‘cross the Rubicon’ on military AI use cases amid ethics dispute

The Pentagon will adhere to existing laws and regulations associated with surveillance, security and democratic processes as it fast-tracks the military’s frontier AI adoption, but it won’t permit companies supplying the technology to determine its rules for operation, Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael told DefenseScoop. His comments come as the Defense Department is locked in a high-stakes dispute with Anthropic about the U.S. military’s use of the startup’s Claude AI model in real-world operations.  “We want guardrails. We need the guardrails tuned for military applications. You can’t have an AI company sell AI to the Department of War and [then] don’t let it do Department of War things, because we’re in the business of defending the country and defending our troops,” Michael said. “I think if someone wants to make money from the government, from the U.S. Department of War, those guardrails ought to be tuned for our use cases — so long as they’re lawful.” (Officially changing the department’s name requires an act of Congress, but President Donald Trump last year signed an executive order rebranding DOD as the Department of War.)  Advertisement During a meeting with a small group of reporters on the sidelines of the annual Microelectronics Commons summit Thursday, Michael provided updates on the department’s GenAI.mil rollout and pushed for the ethics-related rift between the Pentagon and Anthropic to be resolved. “I believe and hope that...