The OpenClaw-ification of AI

**Nathaniel Whittemore** (0:00)
Today on the AI Daily Brief, the open classification of AI, and before that in the headlines, the fight between Anthropic and the Pentagon heats up. The AI Daily Brief is a daily podcast and video about the most important news and discussions in AI.
All right, friends, quick announcements before we dive in. Big apologies for missing the show yesterday. Our journey back from South America ended up being significantly longer and more complicated than we expected, not only because of the East Coast snowstorms, but because we also had an emergency deplaning in Manaus, Brazil that led ultimately to the entire trip being more than 55 hours door to door. So what we're going to do this week is treat the Wednesday show as the off day, and we will have a normal show on Saturday. So get prepared for some weekend listening. Still, we have a lot to catch up on, so with that, let's dive in. We kick off today with a topic that could easily be a main episode. The Pentagon has handed Anthropic an ultimatum in what could be the most crucial battle for AI safety to date. Now, heading into this week, we had building reports that Anthropic's contract with the Department of Defense, or the DOW, depending on who you ask, was in jeopardy over AI readiness. Anthropic was insisting that their technology should not be used to power autonomous weaponry or for the surveillance of Americans. At certain points in the reporting, it seemed like Anthropic had contracted on the basis that their technology would not be used to assist in any lethal exchange. The Pentagon, on the other hand, was insisting that tech companies should not have input on how technology is used in military operations. They had been pushing for each AI lab to provide their models with terms that allow quote all lawful use, basically establishing the position that only US law rather than tech company policy should be the limiting factor in the conduct of war. The conflict had of course erupted after reports that Anthropic's AI models had been used during the raid that captured Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. The reporting has been unclear to what extent AI was used, but it appeared that Anthropic was furious that their technology was used in what was ultimately a lethal operation. In that context, Anthropic executives were summoned to a meeting at the Pentagon on Tuesday to settle the dispute, and things did not go well. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth personally gave Anthropic CEO Dario Amadei a Friday deadline to agree to their terms or face a government blacklist. And this is not just they would drop their contract. The threat was that Anthropic would be designated a supply chain risk and barred for use among military contractors as well. That designation had previously only been applied to foreign companies such as Huawei. New reporting substantially fleshes out the conflicting views. Sources familiar with Anthropic's position said they are not confident that their AI models are reliable enough to operate weapons without a human in the loop. They also note that there are no current laws dealing with how AI can be used in domestic surveillance. Hegseth reportedly told Anthropic that they have until 501 on Friday to get on board or not. He also warned Anthropic that he would ensure that the Defense Production Act is invoked on Anthropic, compelling them to be used by the Pentagon regardless of whether they want or not. Most are taking this to mean the Pentagon would compel Anthropic to provide a version of Claude without guardrails trained into the model. The Defense Production Act does allow the US government to dictate contract terms on goods and services deemed critical to national security. However, it has rarely been invoked against the will of individual companies, and is more typically used to order entire sectors to prioritize the production of certain goods to fulfill government orders. For example, it was invoked during the 2021 California wildfires to increase the production of fire hoses and during the pandemic to boost the supply of ventilators. Katie Sweeten, a former liaison for the Justice Department to the Department of Defense, noted that Hegs's threats are kind of contradictory, telling CNN, I would assume we don't want to utilize the technology that is a supply chain risk, right? So I don't know how you square that. What it sounds like is that the supply chain risk may not be a legitimate claim, but more punitive because they're not acquiescing.
Despite being tense, sources said the meeting was cordial and that there were no raised voices. Hegs has even praised Anthropix models, which has been one of the undercurrents of the story. The Pentagon seems to believe that Anthropix technology is so far ahead of the competition that it can't be replaced by another supplier. The Pentagon has standing contracts with OpenAI, Google and XAI. However, XAI is the only one to agree to all lawful uses standard, across both classified and unclassified settings. Claude is the only model currently cleared for use in classified settings according to Axios. Sources familiar with Anthropix thinking said that they have no plans to buckle to the Pentagon's demands. Their official statement was polite but firm, commenting, We continued good faith conversations about our usage policy to ensure Anthropix can continue to support the government's national security mission in line with what our models can reliably and responsibly do. Meanwhile, a Pentagon spokesperson said, This has nothing to do with surveillance and autonomous weapons being used. You can't lead tactical ops by exception. As of Wednesday, Axios reports that the Pentagon is taking preparatory steps towards labeling Anthropix a supply chain risk. They've reached out to major contractors, including Boeing and Lockheed Martin, to determine if they have any critical dependencies on Anthropix technologies. Now the reason that this is so important and like I said could easily be a main episode, and who knows might need to be at some point, is that there's much more than Anthropix's $200 million contract at stake. The dispute goes right to the heart of the debates around AI safety that have been raging on the internet for the past decade. We are no longer talking about hypotheticals, but a very practical question of whether AI labs or the US government should have the final say on how military AI is deployed. Semaphore writer Reid Albergati commented, The most likely conclusion of this saga is that the Pentagon forces Anthropix to comply using the Defense Production Act. In some ways, this means both sides get what they want. The Pentagon no longer has restrictions on how it can use Claude, and Anthropix gets to save face even if it ends up complying with the Pentagon's demands. For some, this would be a very unsatisfying conclusion. Lawfare Media wrote, The terms governing how the military uses the most transformative technology of the century are being set through bilateral haggling between a Defense Secretary and a Startup CEO with no Democratic input and no durable constraints. Congress should be setting these rules and it should do so in a hurry. Obviously this story continues to evolve and is something we will watch, but for now we move over to one of Anthropix's big competitors in OpenAI where reporting suggests that their Stargate project has stalled out. Project Stargate was announced last January and was one of the first in catalyzing events that kicked off the AI infrastructure boom. Sam Altman went to the White House to announce the half a trillion dollar data center investment. Also in attendance were SoftBank's Masayoshi Sun and Oracle's Larry Ellison. Stargate set the tone for data center investments moving forward. Prior to that, hyperscalers had sort of been hedging their bets, being cautious of overbuilding, but the announcement of half a trillion dollars in spending was Sam Altman's declaration that he was going to build AI compute on a civilizational scale and everyone else should get with the program. And yet, despite the grandiose narrative, the project had challenges from the start.