On Feb. 27, mere hours before the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran with the help of tools made by leading AI company Anthropic, the company’s relationship with the U.S. government went up in flames. Amid a contentious and very public contract dispute over how Anthropic’s models could be used by the U.S. military, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared Anthropic a supply chain risk in a statement so broad that it can only be seen as a power play aimed at destroying the company.
Shortly thereafter, OpenAI, one of Anthropic’s main rivals, announced it had reached its own deal with the Pentagon, claiming it had secured all the safety terms that Anthropic sought, plus additional guardrails. Yet buried in an OpenAI FAQ released the next day was a seemingly banal but telling acknowledgement. In response to a question asking what would happen if the government violated the terms of the contract, the company wrote, “As with any contract, we could terminate it if the counterparty violates the terms. We don’t expect that to happen.”
To which I can only respond: “Wait… Huh?”