The authoritarian AI crisis has arrived (Casey Newton, Platformer)

[highplainsdem]

https://www.platformer.news/anthropic-pentagon-authoritarian-ai/

The authoritarian AI crisis has arrived
AI safety researchers have long worried that a government would seek to use AI for domestic surveillance and autonomous killing. The Pentagon’s fight with Anthropic threatens to make it a reality

Casey Newton
Feb 26, 2026

-snip-

Trump’s position is that the government cannot pressure Facebook to take down anti-vaccine posts, but it can coerce Anthropic into making a version of Claude that kills people without a human in the loop.

In any case, the conflict is now moving into the endgame. The Pentagon pleaded its case on X this morning, pledging at a minimum to deem Anthropic a supply chain risk if it does not comply by Friday evening. Amodei published a statement defending the company’s red lines: “Some uses are also simply outside the bounds of what today’s technology can safely and reliably do,” he wrote.

“We are not walking away from negotiations,” the company told me in a statement today. “We continue to engage in good faith with the department on a way forward.”

The way forward is for Congress to recognize that the concerns Anthropic has raised about military misuse of AI are no longer in the realm of science fiction. Some of the worst outcomes for a society with powerful AI systems are rapidly coming into view. And in the end the fact that Anthropic was willing to resist the Pentagon may prove less important than the fact that none of its peers will do the same.

Newton is hoping some Republicans will be willing to oppose Trump - "If ever there were a time for civil liberties-minded Republicans to act, it is now" - in part because "few issues poll better than placing limits on surveillance and autonomous weapons."

I wish we could count on more Republicans being that ethical.

He does take Anthropic to task for its announcement two days ago dropping a core safety pledge at a critical time. (LBN thread on that here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143621984 ) He says they're "not a perfect protagonist" for opposing an authoritarian government because of that move, and because of how they pursued military contracts even after Trump was re-elected.

But here we are.

Now we'll see if Hegseth carries through with those threats.

[SheltieLover]

1. Ty for sharing!