Report from Reuters
In Brief – Microsoft is backing Anthropic in its legal challenge to the US Department of Defense (DoD) labeling the AI developer a supply-chain risk and blocking the company’s AI services from being used on any defense contracts. The Microsoft amicus brief urges the judge to grant Anthropic’s request for a temporary restraining order that would pause the supply-chain risk designation while the court reviews the case. Anthropic’s Claude AI has been the only major AI model certified for use on classified national security contracts. Anthropic is a direct DoD contractor and its services are also used by other defense contractors. The dispute between the AI developer and the DoD leadership emerged over company demands that their technology could not be used in certain applications. The Pentagon leadership rejected the demands and eventually placed the company on a national-security blacklist. Anthropic sued to block the move and argues that the action was in retaliation to it exercising its right to speak on AI policy. Microsoft argues it is directly affected by the case because it integrates Anthropic’s AI systems into its own technology services that are provided to the US military and will be harmed if those services can no longer use the technology, noting that the Pentagon gave itself six months to phase out Anthropic products but contractors were not granted the same transition period.
Context – The Anthropic – DoD blowup is another example of science fiction narratives filling an AI policy vacuum. Nobody knows how AI systems will evolve and everyone is steeped in science fiction, even the LLMs themselves. Killer AI robot concerns tanking defense contracts and job apocalypse fan fiction tanking stocks. Then there are conservative charges of Woke AI, the ideological cousin of social media censoring conservatives. While the ability of the federal government to set AI standards for defense work is likely on solid ground, using the supply-chain risk blacklist and comments by senior leaders about Anthropic being woke will hurt their immediate legal case. Slowing the process down will likely help.