Pentagon tech chief: No Anthropic resolution in sight

Ashley Gold

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

There's no resolution between Anthropic and the Pentagon coming any time soon despite new agreements with other frontier AI companies, chief technology officer Emil Michael said Thursday.

Why it matters: Michael's comments come as the White House considers potential executive action around AI testing and safety, moves that could eventually allow government agencies to work with Anthropic again.

Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Nvidia, OpenAI, Reflection and SpaceX announced agreements with the Pentagon last week.

The big picture: The Pentagon is not ready to forgive Anthropic following its long spat over the use of its technology, even if the company's own powerful cyber model Mythos has completely changed the discourse around AI regulation in Washington.

What they're saying: The agreements were "a statement by the biggest tech companies in the world involved in the AI space ... saying we support the Department of War, we support the U.S. government, and we support them using our services for all lawful use cases," Michael said during an on-stage interview with New York Times national security correspondent David Sanger at a conference in Washington.

"That's a counter statement to what we heard before," Michael said, that "really made us more comfortable that the industry does want to support the U.S. government."
Asked by Sanger if he sees the Anthropic's issues with the government issue being resolved, Michael said: "Not at the Department of War, no."

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Pentagon tech chief: No Anthropic resolution in sight

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