The latest example of the sector integrating with AI comes amid concerns about its use in the Human Conflict, Iran war.
Washington DC – The U.S. Department of Defense announced new agreements with seven artificial intelligence companies to use advanced technology on sensitive networks.
Friday’s announcement is the latest example of tighter integration between the Departments of Defense, which has been expanding the use of AI for nearly a decade.
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The case comes amid renewed scrutiny of corporate involvement in the U.S. military, amid a public spat with AI company Anthropic and questions about how AI has been used in the U.S.-Israel and Iran wars.
The Pentagon said in a statement that the new agreements with SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Reflection, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services will “accelerate the transformation toward establishing the U.S. military as an AI-first fighting force and strengthen the warfighter’s ability to maintain judgment superiority in all areas of war.”
The company’s capabilities will be used in the most secure information systems to “streamline data synthesis, improve situational understanding, and enhance warfighter decision-making in complex operational environments,” it said.
Conspicuously absent from the Pentagon’s list is Anthropic, which had a major rift with the Pentagon after pushing back on pressure to provide unrestricted access to its Claude AI program for “all lawful uses.”
The appeal raised concerns about Claude’s potential use in government mass surveillance or autonomous weapons systems. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense has identified the company as a “supply chain risk.”
Since then, the two countries have been locked in a protracted legal battle, but there are some signs of easing tensions.
In particular, there is a growing desire by governments to access Anthropic’s powerful new Mythos AI model, which is seen as a potentially transformative tool in both cyber-attacks and cyber-defense.
The Pentagon’s agreements with OpenAI and Google were previously confirmed, as was Elon Musk’s agreement with xAI. As part of these agreements, the three companies agreed to the Department of Defense’s “all lawful use” clause.
The Pentagon said in a statement that more than 1.3 million department employees use its official AI platform, GenAI.mil.
“Warfighters, civilians, and contractors are now putting these capabilities to work, cutting many tasks from months to days.”
The company vowed to continue building out the division’s AI architecture to avoid so-called “vendor lock,” a term meaning over-reliance on one vendor.
Increased scrutiny
The use of AI has come under increasing scrutiny amid the US government’s mass deportation campaign, with rights groups saying technology company Palantir is being used to collect real-time data on potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) targets, including pro-Palestinian supporters.
Amid the US-Israeli war in Iran, questions have arisen about how AI targeting systems are being used. The Pentagon said it had hit 13,000 targets since it began its attacks on February 28.
At least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, including at least 170 people, most of them children, in an apparent U.S. military tomahawk attack on a girls’ school in Minab. The Pentagon said it was still investigating.
During a Senate committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand questioned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about civilian harm monitoring and the use of AI.
“No military, no country, works as hard as the U.S. military at every level to ensure that civilian lives are protected. That is an ironclad commitment that we make, no matter what form…whatever system we use,” Hegseth responded.
