Former Pentagon official Michael Horowitz points out the contradiction in the Department of Defense labeling Anthropic a supply chain risk while actively deploying its models in combat operations.
Assertion Supported
Horowitz: Pentagon gave Anthropic six-month off-ramp because it lacks alternative vendors
“They laid out this six-month off-ramp period for, like, real national security use cases, in part because they rely on Anthropix technology right now because Anthropix is the only vendor. Like behind the current curtain in a classified environment.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Horowitz: Pentagon had no active project disputes with Anthropic before fallout
“And Anthropic was also, there was no dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon about any current projects that Anthropic was doing. It wasn't like the Pentagon asked Anthropic to do something and Anthropic said no or had hesitations.”
Assertion Supported
Horowitz: Pentagon AI Policy Mandates 'All Lawful Uses' Clause
“The Pentagon updated its artificial intelligence policy about like a month or so ago, and one of the things that it did was say that all future contracts that it signed with any AI vendor, so not even necessarily just a frontier AI lab, would have to follow a …”
Opinion
Horowitz: Claude cannot power autonomous weapons because it requires deterministic algorithms
“The kind of algorithms that you're going to be most likely to use in that context are much more deterministic than, say, like, Claude trained on the slop of the internet. And so, Anthropik's not wrong that their tech, like, isn't ready for prime time for auton…”
Assertion Supported
Horowitz: Claude is definitively not conducting autonomous targeting on the battlefield
“A thing that Claude is definitively not doing, At least as far as I know. Like, I would be genuinely shocked. What is autonomous targeting on the battlefield today? Like that, it, I would be astounded if that was a Claude specific task.”
Assertion Supported
Horowitz: Sam Altman is attempting to broker Pentagon-Anthropic peace deal
“Some of the other frontier AI labs like XAI and OpenAI are already now willing to work on the classified side, and you know, Sam Altman is attempting to broker a piece, essentially, and create a deal that perhaps Anthropik could join as well.”