When retrospective books are written in the future about the current war in Iran, it will be seen to have been a historic – perhaps revolutionary – watershed in military history. Not because of an air war leading (hopefully) to the collapse of a dictatorial regime, or the successful initial decapitation of Iran’s leadership, or even the extraordinary coordination between Israeli and American military might. True, these are all impressive accomplishments, but not quite “historic.”

What then? The widespread use of artificial intelligence by the attacking powers, as The Economist reported: “America is thought to have employed Claude, an artificial-intelligence model, to process intelligence, select targets and carry out military simulations” (https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/iran-strikes-2026/card/u-s-strikes-in-middle-east-use-anthropic-hours-after-trump-ban-ozNO0iClZpfpL7K7ElJ2).

The irony is that “Claude’s” owner and developer – Anthropic – is in the midst of a fierce legal battle with the U.S. government about placing limits on its military use. In short, America’s army at present uses Claude as the best AI program out there for military purposes, but the U.S. Department of War wants to have complete independence in how it will be employed. Anthropic, though, demands to put into its contract with the U.S. that Claude will not be used for any illegal purposes (e.g., surveillance of U.S. citizens). For its part, the government argues that........

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