The Pentagon says it's getting its AI providers on 'the same baseline'

"PALM BEACH, Fla. -After weeks of back-and-forth with AI company Anthropic, the Pentagon is actively talking with all four major U.S. AI players-Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and xAI-to ensure the companies and the Defense Department are at "the same baseline" regarding Pentagon expectations, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering said Tuesday. "We actually signed contracts with all four of them over the summer without a lot of specificity," Emil Michael told a group of venture capital investors during an Amazon Web Services event."

"The discussions between Anthropic and the Pentagon have grown increasingly tense. Sources inside the company told Reuters the Defense Department was pushing to use Anthropic's AI models for domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons targeting, and Axios reported the Pentagon is "close" to cutting ties with the company over Anthropic's refusal to give the Pentagon unrestricted access to its models. Some Pentagon officials, speaking anonymously, have even vowed to make Anthropic "pay a price" for its perceived lack of cooperation."

The Pentagon signed contracts with Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and xAI over the summer and is now negotiating with all four to align expectations and deploy their models on Defense systems. The Department aims to enable command elements and business entities to build and deploy AI agents that perform varied tasks with minimal human oversight. Talks with Anthropic have become tense amid reports that the Pentagon sought use of Anthropic models for domestic surveillance and autonomous targeting and that Anthropic resisted unrestricted model access. Anthropic says it is engaging productively while Pentagon officials emphasize working with all four firms.

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