I guess it’s good that they draw the line somewhere, but it is absolutely horrifying to me as a non-American that the moral stance is limited to:
taking issue with fully autonomous AI weapons (purely for technical reasons according to this letter, they are working hard on making them possible)
refusing to conduct mass surveillance of US citizens specifically (foreign nationals are fair game and the intelligence apparatus will surely only be used for good and to preserve democracy).
This is not Anthropic refusing to cooperate with the Trump administration as the title may suggest, they are in fact explicitly eager to serve the US Department of War. They are just vying for slightly better contract terms.
You’re spot-on. As some additional context, Anthropic is already working tightly with the US government. Until the recent announcement regarding Grok, Anthropic was the only approved AI for US government work, as it is/was the only one certified for safely woeking with classified data.
I am only going off of what they are saying in this very press release, which is filled with fawning over the Department and pleading to remain its contractors. That’s what I meant when I called it explicit, they advertise it in the letter we are currently discussing. A few excerpts:
Anthropic has therefore worked proactively to deploy our models to the Department of War and the intelligence community.
Anthropic understands that the Department of War, not private companies, makes military decisions. We have never raised objections to particular military operations nor attempted to limit use of our technology in an ad hoc manner.
Our strong preference is to continue to serve the Department and our warfighters
We remain ready to continue our work to support the national security of the United States.
Yes, they have their reservations, but it is undeniable from the text that they WANT to serve the Department of War and are frustrated that it won’t give up on those two red lines.
They wouldn’t be negotiating if they didn’t want the co tract to begin with. It’s not like they can’t tell from 100 miles off who they’d be getting into bed with. I’m glad to see they have some lines drawn they won’t cross, but it’s laughable for you to question that they didn’t want to be here in the first place.
I guess it’s good that they draw the line somewhere, but it is absolutely horrifying to me as a non-American that the moral stance is limited to:
This is not Anthropic refusing to cooperate with the Trump administration as the title may suggest, they are in fact explicitly eager to serve the US Department of War. They are just vying for slightly better contract terms.
You’re spot-on. As some additional context, Anthropic is already working tightly with the US government. Until the recent announcement regarding Grok, Anthropic was the only approved AI for US government work, as it is/was the only one certified for safely woeking with classified data.
And now they’re the only one banned from it.
I suppose you are a party to their closed-door meetings then.
I am only going off of what they are saying in this very press release, which is filled with fawning over the Department and pleading to remain its contractors. That’s what I meant when I called it explicit, they advertise it in the letter we are currently discussing. A few excerpts:
Yes, they have their reservations, but it is undeniable from the text that they WANT to serve the Department of War and are frustrated that it won’t give up on those two red lines.
We have leaks, yes
They wouldn’t be negotiating if they didn’t want the co tract to begin with. It’s not like they can’t tell from 100 miles off who they’d be getting into bed with. I’m glad to see they have some lines drawn they won’t cross, but it’s laughable for you to question that they didn’t want to be here in the first place.