"Claude was the first A.I. certified to operate on classified systems. Altman, perhaps wisely, thought such work was likely to be more trouble than it was worth. But Amodei wanted Claude to be helpful at the most sensitive level. The national-security agencies do not use Claude in the form of a consumer chatbot; Secretary of War Pete Hegseth does not open the Claude app to ask what's up with the whole Taiwan thing."
"Intelligence contractors, like Palantir, offer platforms that synthesize, process, and surface decision-relevant information. Palantir's workflow includes an integrated suite of A.I. models selected from a drop-down menu. As one Palantir employee told me, 'Claude is just the best, by far.' A human analyst might review signal intelligence to select military targets; Claude can do the same thing, only much faster and more efficiently."
"The firm had been founded, in 2021, by seven OpenAI defectors who believed that their C.E.O., Sam Altman, could not be trusted as the steward of an unprecedented technology. Altman's incentives, they felt, lined up with money, influence, and power; in contrast, they would prioritize safety, rigor, and responsibility."
Anthropic, founded by OpenAI defectors prioritizing AI safety and responsibility, deployed Claude for U.S. national security work in 2025. Claude became the first AI certified to operate on classified systems. Unlike consumer chatbots, Claude integrates into intelligence contractor platforms like Palantir, where it processes classified information and assists in military decision-making. Human analysts traditionally review signal intelligence for target selection; Claude performs these functions faster and more efficiently. CEO Dario Amodei, viewing himself as a geopolitical realist concerned about China's AI capabilities, believed Anthropic had a responsibility to help prevent asymmetric conflict. This represented a significant shift from the company's original mission emphasizing safety and responsibility over military applications.
Read at The New Yorker
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