The stakes are high in the Pentagon’s battle against ‘woke AI’

It seems like a soap opera, or a pitch for a Hallmark movie. But it’s all too real, and the future of our military could hang on how it all plays out.

The U.S. war against Iran is one of the first in the realm of modern warfare where artificial intelligence is playing a key role in all aspects of the conflict, from planning to propaganda. It will not be the last.

How this goes, and how effectively the Pentagon is able to use these new tools, will set the tone for the next 100 years of warfare, like it or not. So now is not the time for a conflict with an artificial intelligence provider — wars are hard enough when taken just one at a time.

The week before the start of hostilities, the Trump administration made news by issuing an ultimatum to Anthropic, an AI company with Pentagon contracts, demanding that it either allow the military unfettered use of its Claude AI or else risk having them seize it through the Defense Production Act — a law that gives the federal government wide latitude in the name of national security.

Anthropic refused, and at just the wrong moment, when the Defense Department was turning to Claude to prepare its attack on Iran. Ultimately, Secretary Pete Hegseth decided not only that his department would not use Claude, but also that it is a supply-chain risk that all defense contractors must avoid going forward.

The real question isn’t Claude’s usefulness — one has to assume the Pentagon knows what it is doing in the making of war, and what gives it an advantage. The real question is why a company like Anthropic, evidently suffering moral angst over........

© The Hill