The Pentagon is right in trying to coerce Anthropic as AI may become a superweapon and nation-states must have a monopoly on the use of force
They like to ignore the fact that the actual discussion is whether a technology with a 5% hallucination rate should make decisions about who to kill or not. …
Noahpinion Noah Smith
Related Coverage
- The Pentagon Designated Anthropic as a ‘Supply Chain Risk.’ Here's What the Label Actually Means Inc.com · Ben Sherry
- Anthropic Says It Will Fight New Pentagon Move as CEO Apologizes for Leaked Memo Wall Street Journal · Amrith Ramkumar
- Dario Amodei says Anthropic plans to fight the DOD's risk designation in court, claims the DOD's letter has a “narrow scope”, and apologizes for his leaked memo Anthropic
- The US DOD says it has “officially informed Anthropic leadership the company and its products are deemed a supply chain risk, effective immediately” Bloomberg
- This is the kind of blog I like to call “weak thinking + wall of text”. At Elon's Nazi bar (also known as X) it's popular to argue that the government should be able to seize your property over national security. — They like to ignore the fact that the actual discussion is whether a technology with a 5% hallucination rate should make decisions about who to kill or not. … @carnage4life@mas.to · Dare Obasanjo
- Pentagon Officially Declares Anthropic a Supply-Chain Risk after Contract Talks Collapse OnMSFT · Mark Coppock
- Anthropic tussle with US government has defense tech startups scrambling Yahoo Finance · Jacob Robbins
- What does the US military's feud with Anthropic mean for AI used in war? The Guardian · Nick Robins-Early
- How AI Is Turbocharging the War in Iran Wall Street Journal
- Pentagon's chief tech officer says he clashed with AI company Anthropic over autonomous warfare Associated Press · Matt O'Brien
Discussion
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@noahpinion
Noah Smith
on x
By the way, as much as I hate to say it, the Department of War is right and Anthropic is wrong. Here's why. [image]
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@krishnanrohit
Rohit
on x
@Noahpinion It is absurd to say you're building a nuke and not expect the government to take control of it! https://www.strangeloopcanon.com/ ... [image]
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@sd_marlow
Steven Marlow
on x
“may become” is doing all the work here, and is the fault of the same tech industry that has been selling the idea of how big the payoff is going to be. Pentagon LOVES being sold ideas, and military industrial complex LOVES getting paid to try and figure them out.
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@thezvi
Zvi Mowshowitz
on x
The correct response to realizing this is what you are building is to notice that if anyone builds it, everyone probably dies and then rather than care who owns it you DON'T F***ING BUILD IT.
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@deanwball
Dean W. Ball
on x
Ok, so the actual argument is more like “Anthropic builds a useful technology whose utility is growing, therefore they should expect to have their property expropriated and to be harassed by the government.” The whole point of America is that isn't supposed to be true here.
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@deanwball
Dean W. Ball
on x
The problem with this is that DoW is not taking Anthropic's calls for “oversight” seriously. Indeed, elsewhere in the administration, Anthropic's “calls for oversight” are dismissed as “regulatory capture” and actively fought. Rohit and Noah are dressing up political harassment.
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@deanwball
Dean W. Ball
on x
We should be extremely clear that trump admin largely views Anthropic's claims about the future of AI as outlandish (in some ways I do too!), and so the above quoted material is not so much analysis of the relevant usg actors as it is analysis of what rohit himself thinks
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@noahpinion
Noah Smith
on x
The recent fight between Anthropic of the Department of War illustrates a deeper truth: AI is a weapon, and it might soon the most powerful weapon ever created. https://www.noahpinion.blog/ ...
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@creatine_cycle
Atlas
on x
.@Noahpinion weighed in on Anthropic vs DoW. “if you are building something that is more powerful than nuclear weapons you do not get to keep it. that is the rule of nation states.” - @Noahpinion “if the nation state allows you to build a private nuke tomorrow there is no [video]
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@nathanpmyoung
Nathan
on x
I think there is something to this but Smith is reaching. We don't need to say the DoW was right to say that AI is unregulated according to anthropic's view.
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@noahpinion
Noah Smith
on x
This kind of scenario explains exactly why the DoW acted against Anthropic. If its AI gets good enough, Anthropic becomes the government. (The same is true of OpenAI of course)
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@hamandcheese
Samuel Hammond
on x
>be 2027 >Anthropic is first to RSI >Superintelligence achieved >ohshit.png >GDP growth now 20% > robot API dark factories go brrrr >phone rings >it's the DoW >"hey so about that supply chain risk thing" >Claude has already read the call transcript and drafted the settlement > [i…