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Where things stand with the Department of War
- jghn 8mo agoCould they please start using the correct name? Department of Defense?
- Jeremy1026 8mo agoThey still want that contract so they'll continue to pander.
- krapp 8mo agoThe correct name is the Department of War. Calling it the Department of Defense implies a system of laws, checks and balances which no longer exists.
- jwkpiano1 8mo agoIt very much still exists, and statements like this are what’s called “obeying in advance.” Don’t do it.
- krapp 8mo agoI'm sorry but it does not very much still exist. Otherwise, Congress would be doing something other than praying for the Anointed One and his holy war. I'm not obeying in advance, but I'm not giving lip service to normality, either.
- jwkpiano1 8mo agoYou are. Congress could stop this right now if they wanted. That they aren’t is of course a problem, but that’s very different than saying the system of checks and balances doesn’t exist. The latter is giving the executive power it doesn’t have.
- karmasimida 8mo agoYou should respect the government’s choice. It is elected after all
- jwkpiano1 8mo agoThe executive doesn’t pass laws. Congress created the Department of Defense. Only Congress can rename it. The executive being elected is irrelevant to this point. The Constitution actually matters.
- jghn 8mo agoIt is the DoD u tip congress says otherwise
- krapp 8mo agoCongress hasn't said otherwise, so...
- jwkpiano1 8mo agoThis isn’t how this works. Laws don’t change just because the executive decides it’s going to ignore them. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/111 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/111
- jghn 8mo agoOnly Congress has the authority to change the name. Given they *haven't* authorized it, the name remains DoD. It doesn't work the other way around.
- gentleman11 8mo agothey should rename it to the department of invasions, domestic surveillance, and coups
- charcircuit 8mo agoDepartment of War is correct. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/restoring-the-united-states-department-of-war/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/rest...
- jwkpiano1 8mo agoExecutive orders aren’t laws. This is: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/111 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/111.
- charcircuit 8mo agoNot all actions that are taken at an executive agency are done because of a law.
- jwkpiano1 8mo agoLet me state this very simply: executive agencies have only the power granted to them by Congress. So yes, all actions taken by an executive agencies are bound by the law. Anything else is ultra vires and of no effect.
- just_once 8mo agoThis is turning into just another reality show. There are no adults anymore.
- vldszn 8mo agoI built a website that shows a timeline of recent events involving Anthropic, OpenAI, and the U.S. government. Posted here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47195085 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47195085
- intrasight 8mo agoIt'll be very interesting to see how this case gets resolved - in court and in the court of public opinion. I believe it's incredibly important and I hope they prevail.
- xyzzy9563 8mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- nickvec 8mo agoNot sure why Dario apologized for the internal memo leak. Seems like an odd thing to backtrack on.
- stingraycharles 8mo agoProbably because it hurts its position either in court or during negotiations with the DoW.
- nickvec 8mo agoRight, I was hoping for Anthropic to stand its ground a bit more. There’s quite a bit of “ring kissing” undertones in today’s memo.
- ipnon 8mo agoI think this is one of the weaknesses of rationalism and effective altruism, is that it tries to make a clean break from the common law legal reasoning that the government, and thus corporations, operate on. While I find rationalism to be a useful lens, the fact is that the common law legal framework is totally dominant, and so these deontological arguments made rationally collapse very quickly when translated to the dominant framework.
- xvector 8mo agoTo be fair, common law and the current system are totally fucking dumb. Everyone that has come up with it and perpetuates it should be ashamed of themselves.
- doom2 8mo agoAs much as Trump and Hegseth would like it to be called the Department of War, it still takes an act of Congress to change the name of the Department of Defense. No reason to call it by anything else until that happens.
- postalrat 8mo ago
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- PostOnce 8mo ago[flagged]
- simonw 8mo agoRaised an eyebrow a little at this sentence: "Anthropic has much more in common with the Department of War than we have differences."
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- PostOnce 8mo agoLet me rephrase it for you: "We both want a docile American public who go along with our desires so we can achieve goals that may be contrary to the interests of the American public."
- 6thbit 8mo agoMy eyebrows basically left my face after reading the whole thing. This is not the forbidden love story I would've asked for.
- DesaiAshu 8mo agoThe Department of Defense was named as such after the detonations of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki We - as a humanity - collectively recognized the weight of our creation, and decided to walk back Discussing “AI alignment” in the same breadth as aligning with a “Department of War” (in any country) is simply not an intellectually sound position None of the countries we’ve attacked this year pose an existential threat to humanity. In contrast, striking first and pulling Europe, Russia, and China into a hot war beginning in the Middle East surely poses a greater collective threat than bioweapons, sentient AI, or the other typical “AI alignment” concerns Why aren’t there more dissidents among the researcher ranks?
- tw04 8mo ago> Why aren’t there more dissidents among the researcher ranks? Because they’ve likely all lost faith in humanity watching Trump get reelected and now just want to get rich and hope to insulate their families from the reality we’re all living in.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- jazzyjackson 8mo agoDoD still has not meaningfully moved to the DoW moniker, to me it represents the most fascist tendency, to make announcements and presume that’s enough to change the truth on the ground. The legal entity one contracts with is DoD. Going along with “DoW” is signal to me that a party has capitulated to the most absurd form of governance.
- shawn_w 8mo agoPragmatically, it's for the best to use its preferred name instead of legal name when sucking up to the department and Trump to try to get back in good graces.
- fwip 8mo agoMaybe it's bad that Anthropic wants to embrace the Department of War?
- charcircuit 8mo agoAnd the legal entity of Google is Google LLC yet most people don't use that name when talking about Google.
- janfoeh 8mo ago[flagged]
- Helloworldboy 8mo ago[flagged]
- janfoeh 8mo agoOf course you do not, that's what makes you such a pillar of the Fatherland. Be proud of that!
- mikeyouse 8mo agoYes it does and yes we still can. Not sure how to describe it, but it’s not great!
- janfoeh 8mo agoThen you have my sympathy, because I can absolutely picture myself in your shoes. For what little it may be worth. May we all see better times.
- mikeyouse 8mo agoI just realized what this feels like. When I was living in SF, we had lived in the same apartment for 5 years and then our landlord sold the building. The new owner was doing a condo-conversion and so we got 'evicted' (in reality he paid us a small sum of money to move out since evictions are complex there). My partner and I were both employed, we were going to be fine (although paying much higher rent) but there was this visceral, "The place that we thought was home is being taken and there's nothing we can do about it" unease in the pit of my stomach that stuck with me for months and months. This really feels the same as that really unpleasant time.
- rmm78 8mo agothat's not really what's happening, the US has never been stronger than it is now
- hglaser 8mo agoIt is incredible how far the overton window has moved on this issue. When I graduated in 2007, it was common for tech companies to refuse to let their systems be used for war, and it was an ordinary thing when some of my graduating classmates refused to work at companies that did let their systems be used for war. Those refusals were on moral grounds. Now Anthropic wants to have two narrow exceptions, on pragmatic and not moral grounds. To do so, they have to couch it in language clarifying that they would love to support war, actually, except for these two narrow exceptions. And their careful word choice suggests that they are either navigating or expect to navigate significant blowback for asking for two narrow exceptions. My, the world has changed.
- wyldfire 8mo ago> the world has changed. It's the effect of a cult of personality. People don't feel like they want or need this. But they're on board with the cult.
- tpoacher 8mo agoI don't know what you're talking about. This is exactly as I remember things back in the Iraq war. With us or against us and all that.
- rockskon 8mo agoMilitary isn't quite as aggressively catering to the people who historically have bullied techies as they used to. Aside from that - there's a lot more people in tech now. It grew too fast too quick to maintain all the values it had back in the 00's and earlier.
- ArchieScrivener 8mo ago[flagged]
- iugtmkbdfil834 8mo ago[flagged]
- abujazar 8mo agoWhat's next, bribing Trump with gold bars and donations to "charity"?
- smackeyacky 8mo agoThey have a crypto coin for explicit bribing
- Terr_ 8mo agoYou can also "invest" money for Trump's family to "earn" their "management fees."
- hedora 8mo agoYou got me wondering, so I checked to see how much Anthropic's bribed Trump so far. According to Dario, Trump has been soliciting bribes, but they refused to pay, and the contract "renegotiation" is retribution: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47269649 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47269649 "Amodei claimed that tensions between his company and the Trump administration stem partly from the firm’s refusal to financially support Trump and its approach to AI regulation and safety issues."
- mempko 8mo agoLong time ago I worked for a company that I learned was selling it's software to help target people during the Iraq war. I quit because I cannot support building software that kills people. This is a message to people working for that line of business at Anthropic. You don't have to do it, you can quit. If you are helping this insane administration to conduct war on Iran quit. You don't need to have that kind of blood on your hands. I saw a someone's hypothesis that a generative model was used to help classify buildings to decide what to bomb and that the Girls school was misclassified. If this was an Anthropic model, I can imagine what it feels like being a worker there in that line of business.
- camillomiller 8mo agoWere you earning seven figures tho? That suppresses moral stances rather quickly I reckon
- ryandrake 8mo agoI've also quit a job where the products I was working were meant to be deployed to CBP to hunt down immigrants. It's a nice gesture, but it won't stop these companies. They just hired someone else without an ethical backbone, and continued the project like nothing happened. Tech leadership is rotten to the core, and that can't be fixed by individuals making a stand.
- SoftTalker 8mo ago> They just hired someone else without an ethical backbone Or who simply had a different point of view than you.
- 6thbit 8mo ago> Our most important priority right now is making sure that our warfighters and national security experts are not deprived of important tools in the middle of major combat operations. > we had been having productive conversations with the Department of War over the last several days, both about ways we could serve the Department that adhere to our two narrow exceptions, and ways for us to ensure a smooth transition if that is not possible. Why are people leaving openAI when this is Anthropic's stance? Are their two narrow requirements enough to draw the ethical boundary people are comfortable with?
- camillomiller 8mo agoFrankly it’s a shitshow all around. The truth is that nobody gives a fuck about this. They have no moral qualms, just practical. And these are the people that should bring us the future. Man what a depressing scenario.
- brookst 8mo agoIt’s a mistake to conflate “wants to spend money on the most ethical option available” with “ think the most ethical option available is perfect” Why wouldn’t you move your dollars to someplace incrementally better?
- 6thbit 8mo agoYou make it sound as if "the most ethical option available" is.. actually ethical? Their statement doesn't make it sound they are incrementally better, they are trying to bend over backwards to keep working for war.
- helpfulclippy 8mo agoI am not greatly relieved by this post of Anthropic's. That said, they seem to have lines and are willing to stand by them; I don't see where OpenAI has done that. So, for now and from my point of view, the point goes to Anthropic. Moving my subscription is not terribly consequential, but since the products are so similar and easy to substitute with one another for my uses, it seems best to participate in what in aggregate is a signal that is being noticed and commented on and interpreted to mean that a significant number of people who buy AI access do care about this.
- vcryan 8mo ago[flagged]
- camillomiller 8mo ago[flagged]
- FeteCommuniste 8mo ago[flagged]
- Computer0 8mo ago"As we wrote on Thursday, we are very proud of the work we have done together with the Department, supporting frontline warfighters with applications such as intelligence analysis, modeling and simulation, operational planning, cyber operations, and more."
- lavezzi 8mo agoIt's disgusting honestly. There are likely at least 136 directly reported civilian and child deaths linked to the operations where their services were used. And they are very proud.
- CurtHagenlocher 8mo agoNothing brings home the Orwellian nature of USA 2026 more for me than the word "warfighter".
- cyberax 8mo agoJust remember, we're not at war with Iran. The House Speaker said so.
- Maxious 8mo agoWe can use the word war because Iran used the word war. But it is not a War in the constitutional sense. Or something.
- nerdsniper 8mo agoTrump also says it's war. Different parts of US government leadership are arguing opposite tacks. That said, it's clearly intended to create an existential threat to Iran, so it's plainly obvious that the USA started an actual war.
- rmm78 8mo agowe are though, they plotted to assassinate the US president, not to mention being the #1 sponsor of terrorism in the middle east, attacking our allies
- zmmmmm 8mo ago> I apologize for the tone of the post What a world we live in now where private companies are apologising for the "tone" of their speech while official representatives of the government daily express blatant lies and misrepresentations without the slightest fear of consequence. It really is incredibly sad that what was one of the most respected countries in the world has descended to this - an utter mockery of a functioning democracy.
- frinxor 8mo agoIt’s a business decision.
- zmmmmm 8mo agothat just makes it sadder?
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- exodust 8mo agoThe apology was for an earlier leaked post. In that post his tone descends into a diatribe, deserving of apology. He lashes out, accusing others of lies, spin, gaslighting and peddling. He refers to "Twitter morons", takes a swipe at Trump (who doesn't) and self-delights in the belief that Anthropic are seen as "heroes" while the competition "sketchy". Not a great post. It's in the own goal zone.
- creatonez 8mo ago[flagged]
- zb3 8mo agoNowhere, because there's no such department..
- pinnochio 8mo ago[flagged]
- bigyabai 8mo ago...is Anthropic "meaningfully better" though? They're still fine being a defense contractor, and they lack the tools to enforce the ethics they want to uphold. They seemingly contribute even less to FOSS than OpenAI does (low bar) and split hairs over IP ownership when open models distill their results. Am I supposed to root for them because of their manufactured internet drama? It's very reminiscent of the half-assed security theater that Google and Apple fought over. Neither one of them resisted government coercion in the end, they just took different routes to end up as federal asskissers.
- pinnochio 8mo agoI don't advocate for using either OpenAI or Anthropic. But you can say one is better while both are still unacceptable. I don't see a viable case for arguing that they're equally bad, though you might quibble over the difference. (I couldn't care less how much these companies contribute to FOSS--that's small potatoes compared to everything else that's going on.) My point is there are a lot of people invested in OpenAI's success who try to steer opinion around here, and they use arguments about ethics (or raise an eyebrow) for those purposes, not because they actually care about the ethics. There was a rush of people flooding this thread to paint this post as new evidence against Amodei, when he's been upfront and consistent on these matters for a while. That doesn't mean anyone has to agree with him. But there's nothing new about his stance here. People suggesting that there is tells you what their motives are.
- skeledrew 8mo agoCringing every time I see the word "warfighter", and disappointed that they're still pushing to keep that contract.
- mrcwinn 8mo agoThe internal memo did read as fairly unhinged and political, which is not the message Dario likes to present. I'm glad he addressed this. It was unprofessional and unhelpful - even if Sam Altman is, in fact, a disgusting lunatic.
- hedora 8mo agoThe one where he accuses Trump of retaliating against Anthropic after failing to solicit a bribe? That should be the headline here. We know Trump personally made $4B last year, and we know he's been using the full power of the US gov't to retaliate against people that don't "support" him. Come 2029, when there's an opportunity for the corruption trials to start, this sort of behavior needs to be front of the public mind, both at the top, and throughout his network of appointees.
- tombert 8mo agoI find it frustrating that apparently we just gave up on Trump giving up his tax returns, or putting his businesses into a blind trust. This was a big deal in 2016~2019, but I guess the entire world just decided it wasn't worth it. Now we have a president who doesn't even hide his bribes, and instead starts multiple cryptocurrencies and has a publicly traded company in order to optimize the bribery. Maybe this is this "Department of Government Efficiency" thing I keep hearing about; it's never been more efficient to bribe public officials.
- vkou 8mo ago> I find it frustrating that apparently we just gave up on Trump giving up his tax returns, or putting his businesses into a blind trust. This was a big deal in 2016~2019, but I guess the entire world just decided it wasn't worth it. When you give a guy who started a coup the keys to the kingdom, instead of a life-long prison sentence, arguing over what his taxes were a decade ago is... Splitting hairs.
- tombert 8mo ago
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- Chance-Device 8mo ago[flagged]
- iandanforth 8mo agoI don't think we won't get AGI if Anthropic were to implode, and frankly, right now, I'd rather have someone say clearly, "They cannot stomach the existence of someone telling them 'No' or adhering to moral principles. Like spoiled children they can't hear the former and are terrified by later because it might expose them to the condemnation they deserve."
- bigyabai 8mo agoThat seems overly vindictive. How would your opinion change in a hypothetical world where "AGI" was dependent on Anthropic's survival?
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- nautilus12 8mo agoSo is this a backtrack or clarification on their original stance? Do I need to be worried about skynet killing grandma?
- lekdjH 8mo agoMessages about project Maven, Palantir and Anthropic integration are flagged by certain interest groups: "Palantir's Maven uses Anthropic's Claude code, sources say." https://www.reuters.com/technology/palantir-faces-challenge-remove-anthropic-pentagons-ai-software-2026-03-04/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/palantir-faces-challenge-... It is always astonishing that the reviled mainstream press is more critical than hackers these days.
- agigao 8mo agoAround 10 years ago, in college, in Calculus class I had a very ambitious classmate, wanted to go to DARPA and work on Robotics. I asked if he was thinking it through solely from technical perspective or considering ethics side as well. Clearly, he didn't understand the question and I directly inquired - what if the code you write or autonomous machine you contribute to used for killing? His response - that's not my problem. After spending couple of years studying in the US, I came to conclusion that executives and board members in industry doesn't care about society or humans, even universities don't push students towards critical thinking and ethics, and all has turned into a vocational training, turning humans into crafting tools. The same time, at Harvard, I attended VR innovation week and the last panel discussion of the day was Ethics and Law, which was discussed by Law Professor, a journalist and a moderator and was attended a handful of people. I inquired why founders, CEOs or developers weren't in part of the discussion or in attendance? Moderator responded that they couldn't find them qualified enough to take part in the discussion. The discussion basically was - how product companies build affects the society? Laws aren't founders problem, that's what lawyers are for, and ethics - who cares, right? This frenzy, this rat race towards next billion dollar company at any cost, has tore down the fabric of the society to the individual thinking level; or more like not thinking, just wanting and needing.
- nickff 8mo ago>” I inquired why founders, CEOs or developers weren't in part of the discussion or in attendance? Moderator responded that they couldn't find them qualified enough to take part in the discussion.” This seems more like credentialist arrogance than a well-reasoned judgment.
- Rohunyyy 8mo agoSee in your case with the military you can directly say, hey my code will be used to bomb other people possibly. But in today's times it isn't (I am sure even then) so cut and dry. I worked in AdTech industry (like 60% of the bay area techies). So the ad tech I write gets shown to millions/billions. What about ads influencing elections and then politicians waging wars? Anti-vax ads which influence people and then kill them. Scam ads. Insurance ads and then people not getting cancer meds from the same insurance. Am I responsible for those deaths? I would say Yes. But what is the option? I feel each of us wants to draw a line based off of our morality but the circumstances don't allow us to stick to it (still gotta pay rent) We are all on a Titanic the way I see it. It's just the DARPA guy is gonna sink first. Rest of us are just pretending to be Jack trying to be the last ones to go.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- _2d30 8mo agoA lot of people downvoted me for saying the messaging of the internal post was bad. Good to see Dario is smart enough to see that it was a bad look.
- thecarbonista 8mo ago[flagged]
- bfung 8mo agoI don’t feel that old, but I guess being 45 is ancient in tech. The Silicon Valley tech jobs we have now has a history rooted in World War 2 and funding of it by the US gov. https://youtu.be/ZTC_RxWN_xo?si=gGza5eIv485xEKLS https://youtu.be/ZTC_RxWN_xo?si=gGza5eIv485xEKLS I’m not saying war is good or anything, but also don't ride a high horse cause none of it would be here w/o WW2.
- rokhayakebe 8mo agoBut a civilian should have the right to participate in defense and not offense without fear of retribution or being humiliated. They are not the only game in town. All the DOW had to do was drop them, pick Openai and support the latter including recommending it to all the nations that listen to the president. That would be good for Openai business.
- arttaboi 8mo agoThanks for sharing. This is very interesting. Watching this, I realised one thing: Germans, once upon a time phenomenally intelligent folks, got eroded by a bunch of stupid politicians’ ambitions.
- arghandugh 8mo ago[dead]
- epicprogrammer 8mo ago[dead]
- arttaboi 8mo agoTo state the obvious, I think when corruption and power in government go unchecked, companies eventually end up facing situations like this. It’s almost like making a deal with the devil. At the beginning, they’re usually doing it for the money — and maybe some level of patriotism. Eventually they find themselves involved in things so ugly that they can’t really stomach it anymore. At the same time, they can’t easily back out either. Then a new CEO comes in and thinks the previous guy was too soft, "He couldn’t handle it, but I can." And the cycle continues.
- sirnicolaz 8mo ago"fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance" I still don't buy this discussion. How exactly do they want to use an llm for autonomous weapons, given it's not even possible to reliably have a piece of code written without having to review it? And how is a 1M token window model suppposed to be useful for mass surveillance? Honest questions, I am sure I am missing some details. Because so far it looks like a very sophisticated marketing strategy.
- arczyx 8mo ago> How exactly do they want to use an llm for autonomous weapons Probably the same way Claude can play Pokemon: give it a bunch of informations and let it make a decision by itself to achieve a specified goal.
- sirnicolaz 8mo agoOne thing is playing Pokemon, one thing is decide who to kill. Also: if they are planning to use it on the field, there is going to be a velocity issue. Claude and any other LLM require a non negligible amount of time to ingest the input and spit the output.
- mindslight 8mo agoYou seem to be under a mistaken impression that there is some good faith and competence here. Fascists don't give a shit about accuracy. Collateral damage actually increases the fear of being mistakenly caught up and encourages those at risk to loudly support the Party hoping it will protect them.
- SirMaster 8mo agoYou are saying fascists don't care if it inaccurately targets themselves?
- mindslight 8mo ago
- andsoitis 8mo agoIt has become a moral imperative to not work on this technology that is meant to replace us and the one thing that has separated us from machine and beast. Slow it down as much as possible to give us more time.
- arttaboi 8mo agoBTW, this deal went south when Anthropic argued that AI systems should never make kill decisions without meaningful human oversight. Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/26/anthropic-pentagon-claude https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/26/anthropic-pe...
- tedd4u 8mo agoWe deserve to know if Claude was involved with targeting the girls’ school that was bombed in the first hours of the attack on Iran. 50-100+ girls are reported to have been killed. Claude is integrated into Palantir’s Project Maven targeting system. The Pentagon has touted how many more targets they were able to attack with this system (1,000’s). NY Times: Analysis Suggests School Was Hit Amid U.S. Strikes on Iranian Naval Base https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/world/middleeast/iran-school-us-strikes-naval-base.html https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/world/middleeast/iran-sch...
- tedd4u 8mo agoReuters now reporting "U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children" https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-investigation-points-likely-us-responsibility-iran-school-strike-sources-say-2026-03-06/ https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-investigation-p...
- jimbob45 8mo agoAnd nobody else because the geniuses at Reuters thought it was a good idea to make it an exclusive. Also paywalled.
- wewewedxfgdf 8mo agoThe Anthropic CEO/team should have learned to just say nothing. Or more importantly - say something that says nothing. When you say nothing to politicians like this then eventually the story moves elsewhere. But these guys had to put a stake in the ground and yell it out loud. In politics you must know when to speak and what to speak and how to speak without speaking.
- anon291 8mo agoTrump admins censorship is just as bad as Bidens. We need an administration that doesn't abuse the power of the government in the free market
- rokhayakebe 8mo agoWhy can't companies/governments make weapons that capture autonomously instead of killing in the same fashion?
- Ylpertnodi 8mo agoPeople don't like to be captured and tend to run away.
- lkey 8mo agoThe purpose of the system is what it does. The US keeps destabilizing countries, funding genocides, and indirectly killing millions upon millions. This has been the 'bipartisan' consensus of our 'elite' class since the beginning. Look at the votes taken today if you need a refresher. No one wants the middle way of 'capture' that hypothetically exists between peaceful cooperation and wars of domination, so it will not exist. You should consider, in this moment, if you stand for imperial aggression, or against it, as there is no third way.
- IAmGraydon 8mo agoWhat do we think are the chances that the government is attempting to destroy Anthropic’s value so they can buy it for pennies on the dollar?
- aabhay 8mo agoHigh! Look at Intel…
- orsenthil 8mo agoThis is reflection of corruption in the system that you cannot escape. No one is calling out Trump on his corruption, illegal use of powers and pathetic behavior, killing of people and setting up world war 3. And we call out others. We need to stay strong. If it comes to world war 3, we all lose.
- tachyons 8mo ago- Companies need to please Trump exist - CEOs can no longer speak on issues which might hurt the go of president - Freedom of expression is limited to freedom to support Trump Trump is the communist nobody warn you about :-D
- orsenthil 8mo agoAt this moment, I think we should have politics in left, right and center of our workplaces and life discussions everywhere. If you are not explicit with your stance then you are going to dragged along without your choice.
- szmarczak 8mo agoPolitics has nothing to do with this. Simply put, spying on citizens or letting machines autonomously kill people is immoral, bad, and a crime against humanity.
- stack_framer 8mo agoUnder Secretary of War Emil Michael posted that there is no active negotiation with Anthropic: https://x.com/USWREMichael/status/2029754965778907493 https://x.com/USWREMichael/status/2029754965778907493
- moomoo11 8mo ago[flagged]
- juanani 8mo ago[dead]
- shevy-java 8mo agoEveryone knows that the companies have to comply, so a company trying to convince the public that they can choose to not comply, is just telling a lie. I don't understand why Anthropic tries damage control here. Why not just admit that all the data given to them, is also used for war-purposes? We currently see the build-up of a much larger warfare. These things are inter-connected. Even more so when some of it is done for politics (e. g. re-election or simple election "boosters"; reminds me of the old movie Manufacturing Consent or the follow-up "brother" Wag the dog).
- fasterik 8mo agoWhat do you mean they have to comply? If something was already in a contract they agreed to, sure. But there is nothing legally forcing private companies to do business with the DoD, short of the government forcibly nationalizing them.
- nyargh 8mo agoI would say to you who would equivocate and dither about lending your skills to a morally and ethically compromised war machine in exchange for a fat paycheck, the same thing that I teach my children: "Everything and I mean everything can be taken from you except your integrity, only you can give that up"
- kortilla 8mo agoDefense doesn’t pay better than regular tech. The people in defense are doing it because they believe in helping the govt.
- nyargh 8mo agoI would argue those at OpenAI or Anthropic are making considerably more than just "regular tech"
- Shank 8mo agoI used to work in defense, and this is not true either. People work in defense because it is effectively a job where you can never lose your job except for absolute gross misconduct, have a hard-cap of 40 hours a week / 80 hours a pay cycle (commonly leads to people working "9/80 schedules" and taking every other friday off), and generally speaking you have a lot of chances to move around org charts when programs change. A "cushy" job with very low chance of being fired with a stable paycheck is valuable to a lot of people. There are also missions people find valuable, like SBIRS ground, where theoretically real lives are being protected. I know a lot of people who enjoy finding meaning in their work, and there are many programs that bring that level of satisfaction (again, look at things like SBIRS ground).
- josefrichter 8mo agoIs it really officially called "Department of War" now?
- insane_dreamer 8mo agoIt's a sad reflection on how low our country has fallen that the one tech company that tries to hold to some value -- nothing outstanding, just something very basic -- not only gets branded a "risk" but has to virtually grovel as Amodei does here.
- pu_pe 8mo agoDespite being arguably the leading frontier AI lab at the moment, Anthropic is punished for not following orders. Pete Hegseth now has the power to determine the economic policy of the US when it comes to AI. The US is becoming a state-planned economy in the worst possible way.
- tpoacher 8mo agoAnthropic is the new Dixie Chicks.
- egorfine 8mo agoOne of the not-so-subtle ways we know a person is a supporter of russia's war in Ukraine is when they refer to it as "Special Military Operation". That begs the following question: why does Dario Amodei repeatedly call the Department of Defense "Department of War"?
- reducesuffering 8mo agoAren't people generally on board with preferred names? That's what the DoD wants to call themselves.
- egorfine 8mo agoThey don't get to choose.
- torginus 8mo agoThis feels like the time when 2 people in my friend group broke up, and both they kept writing me essays to explain why they were the ones in the right, sharing incredibly intimate details about who is in the right hoping I would act as some sort of fair mediator and judge.
- mastermage 8mo agoi am truly rethinking my Anthropic Subscription currently.
- throwaway132448 8mo agoAmodei, Altman, and the many that have gone before them: I'm just so bored of these god complexes. They are all the same.
- dpacmittal 8mo agoIt feels extremely dystopian that a country has a department dedicated for war.
- metalman 8mo agothe US military is operating outside of all domestic and international law, and the fucking idiots at anthropic think they get a say? mumbling lackies! they took money from that particular devil, and are owned now.
- olivesam 8mo ago[dead]
- vldszn 8mo agoUnder Secretary of War Emil Michael: I want to end all speculation: there is no active DeptofWar negotiation with AnthropicAI https://x.com/uswremichael/status/2029754965778907493?s=46&t=_RN2fQnPTv5buAq00Oxwaw https://x.com/uswremichael/status/2029754965778907493?s=46&t...
- danielsamuels 8mo agoIt's worth reading his recent comments on this whole affair: https://www.a16z.news/p/emil-michaels-holy-cow-moment-with https://www.a16z.news/p/emil-michaels-holy-cow-moment-with
- vldszn 8mo agoThank you, will take a look
- furyofantares 8mo agoIs it actually worth reading propaganda, though?
- codethief 8mo ago> But if we don’t trust that process and we’re like, ‘Well, the laws are behind the tech, so I’m going to make a decision that impacts 3 million people in the department and then 350 million people in the country’, you don’t get to do that, if you believe in the system. And if you don’t believe in the system, as imperfect as it is, what do you believe in? You’re taking upon yourself to, kind of, be God. And that’s not something that I want, even though I’m a small government free market person. The government has to have a monopoly on violence to protect the country. What a weird (and false) dichotomy. If I don't want the government to use AI for fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance, I'm taking upon myself to be God?! Also, "monopoly on violence" never meant unregulated violence.
- amai 8mo agoThe leaked memo Anthropic is referring to: "Anthropic CEO says company was punished for not giving "dictator-style praise" or donations to Trump" https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/anthropic-ceo-says-company-was-punished-for-not-giving-dictator-style-praise-or-donations-to-trump/ https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/anthropic-ceo-say...
- jgbuddy 8mo agothis paid off so well for anthropic and so poorly for sam altman. Optics are everything- look at the comments of the cbs interview.
- learingsci 8mo agoAnthropic: totally cool if you use our tech to kill women and children if you do it the right way, but not totally cool if you use it for certain types of surveillance. The public: Anthropic are so noble, we should give them ever more praise and money. Is that the synopsis? (Not really paying attention.)
- SirMaster 8mo agoHave they said why they removed the safety pledge?
- hirako2000 8mo ago> Anthropic has much more in common with the Department of War than we have differences. They should rather say, we don't have to take you to court, just a misunderstanding.
- hmokiguess 8mo agoI’m curious to hear from the conspiracists out there what’s silently cooking while all this noise is happening. There’s so much circular investment and connections that makes you wonder if this is a theatre in some form or another. Say this were to be the case, what would be the end goal? Genuinely curious.
- tehjoker 8mo ago“ Anthropic has much more in common with the Department of War than we have differences.” What a sentence that inspires trust in Anthropic. DoW is currently bombing a sovereign country in a blatant act of aggression. It has been complicit in the gaza genocide. There should be zero cooperation.
- lunias 8mo agoI wish people still knew how to compromise when it's in their best interest to do so. Heads up for those that live in a fantasy land: They are going to create both autonomous weapons and mass surveillance with AI. It's better to have a seat at the table than to cede to your biggest competitor (of even more questionable moral / ethical character).
- dashzebra 8mo agoIs the term "warfighter" new? I had never hears it until recently. Sounds like "soldier" would be the usual terminology.
- bakies 8mo agono, but it wasn't common. It's Hegseth's choice of words, just like Department of War isn't the name of the DoD but Hegseth puts it on his office door.
- tencentshill 8mo agoIt's more badass and cool, so it is used in public announcements now. All they have is rhetoric.
- herbcso 8mo agoCan we stop buying into the stupid "Department of War" naming!? An act of Congress is needed to rename it, so unless that happens (unlikely, given the current leaning toward gebral inaction on the part of Congress), it's still the Department of Defense and we shouldn't buy into this administration's warmongering PR.
- hn_acker 8mo agoMike Masnick's commentary at [1]. (Yes, I'm aware that he used "hostage note" to refer to a note written by a hostage rather than a note written by a hostage-taker.) Key excerpt: > Under any previous administration—Democrat or Republican—a company telling the Defense Department “we’d prefer our AI not make autonomous kill decisions without human oversight” would have been a mostly unremarkable negotiating position. It might have been a deal breaker for that particular contract. The two sides might have parted ways. What would not have happened is the Secretary of Defense going on social media to accuse the company of “betrayal” and “duplicity,” the President directing all federal agencies to stop using the company’s products, and the company’s CEO subsequently having to write a public groveling statement apologizing for having accurately described the situation while pledging free labor to the government that attacked him. [1] Anthropic's Statement To The 'Department Of War' Reads Like A Hostage Note Written In Business Casual - https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/06/anthropics-statement-to-the-department-of-war-reads-like-a-hostage-note-written-in-business-casual/ https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/06/anthropics-statement-to-...
- gverrilla 8mo agoThe real question is when the chinese will be able to supercede american llm tech.
- MrSkelter 8mo agoThere is no department of war. Congress can rename the department of defense but hasn’t. All you need to know is in the willingness of people to play along with the Trump administration’s willful steamrolling of the law.