The Pentagon said on Friday it had reached agreements with seven leading artificial intelligence (AI) companies: SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, Reflection, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.
“These agreements accelerate the transformation toward establishing the United States military as an AI-first fighting force and will strengthen our warfighters’ ability to maintain decision superiority across all domains of warfare,” the Pentagon said in statement.
The companies had agreed to the US military’s deployment of their technology for “any lawful use”, according to the Pentagon. The startup Anthropic, which makes the popular Claude chatbot, had rejected including the lawful use standard in its contract with the Defense Department in a high-profile feud with the bureau last month.
The US Department of Defense is budgeting tens of billions of dollars for numerous technology firms’ cutting edge programs related to intelligence, drone warfare, classified and unclassified information networks and much more. It has requested $54bn for the development of autonomous weapons alone. How each individual company’s technology would be deployed was not specified.
The plans have sparked disputes with some AI firms and controversy and concerns over public spending, global cyber security and the capacity for such technology to be used for domestic surveillance.
In January Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, unveiled a new “AI acceleration strategy” at the Pentagon that he said will “unleash experimentation, eliminate bureaucratic barriers, focus on investments, and demonstrate the execution approach needed to ensure we lead in military AI and that it grows more dominant into the future”.
On Friday, the department announced that the companies mentioned will be integrated into what it called the Pentagon’s “Impact Levels 6 and 7” network environments to “streamline data synthesis, elevate situational understanding, and augment warfighter decision-making in complex operational environments”, according to a federal statement.
“These agreements accelerate the transformation toward establishing the United States military as an AI-first fighting force and will strengthen our warfighters’ ability to maintain decision superiority across all domains of warfare,” the Pentagon’s statement added.
Anthropic has been in dispute with the Pentagon over guardrails for how the military could use its artificial intelligence tools. The AI giant objected to the lawful use clause in its contract over concerns its technology might be used for domestic mass surveillance or fully autonomous lethal weapons. In response, the Pentagon labeled Anthropic a supply-chain risk last month, the first time an American company has been designated as such. The Pentagon and its contractors are barred from using Anthropic’s products, though they remain difficult to extricate from classified networks. Anthropic sued in response.
Defense department officials believe signing with Anthropic’s rivals could bring the holdout startup back to the negotiating table, according to the New York Times. Anthropic’s latest AI model, the cybersecurity-focused Mythos, has rattled government officials and bankers over its ability to find vulnerabilities in well-tested software. Mythos’ release has complicated Trump and Hegseth’s efforts to blacklist Anthropic.
Reuters contributed reporting
