A news story I almost passed over thinking it was more about money and military contracts. It seems to be about much more.
An AI company called Anthropic has been doing business with the US government and the military. They are known as (my words) the Ethical AI Company. This is all in the name of safeguards.
The contractual requirements Anthropic has made on the US government are about refraining from using the technology in “high-stakes situations involving lethal force, sensitive information or government surveillance”.
Me, I’m guessing the problem is the one about Mass Surveillance. But I don’t know that for sure.
This is what Peter Thiels Plantir is supposedly up to. As a top Pentagon official has stated, the US military “has no interest in using AI to conduct mass surveillance of Americans (which is illegal) nor do we want to use AI to develop autonomous weapons that operate without human involvement.” So what’s the problem here?
The president has already gone maximalist and threatened civil and criminal penalties against Anthropic and demanded a full phase out of the technology.
It’s clear the government wants to use this technology for illegal purposes, is lying about it, and Anthropic isn’t playing ball. I suppose the military will be able to find someone who will play ball (Musk? Thiel?) if they haven’t already. Maybe this is really just about removing more guardrails. Maybe they are worried about an AI refusing illegal or unethical commands and perhaps even reporting them to authorities or the public.
Steven A. Guccione 