Leading tech companies that have previously held the U.S. military and U.S. intelligence at an arms-length, have had a change of heart and are now warming up for what will likely be long-term partnerships.
In a dramatic shift from their wariness about allowing the U.S. military to access their technology, OpenAI, Meta and Anthropic have all partnered with the Department of Defense at varying degrees.
“Due to their ability to process vast amounts of data, reason, and generate usable insights, large language models can support many aspects of America’s safety and national security,” said Meta’ President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg. Meta will allow the U.S. military to access Llama, a family of open large language models and large multimodal models.
“They can help to streamline complicated logistics and planning, track terrorist financing or strengthen our cyber defenses. For decades, open source systems have been critical to helping the United States build the most technologically advanced military in the world and, in partnership with its allies, develop global standards for new technology. Open source systems have helped to accelerate defense research and high-end computing, identify security vulnerabilities and improve communication between disparate systems.”
On November 7, Anthropic announced that it will sell its AI to U.S. intelligence by way of a deal with Amazon’s cloud business and Palantir. The deal allows U.S. intelligence to access Anthropic’s Claude AI models.
“We’re proud to be at the forefront of bringing responsible AI solutions to U.S. classified environments, enhancing analytical capabilities and operational efficiencies in vital government operations,” said Kate Earle Jensen, Anthropic’s Head of Sales and Partnerships. “Access to Claude 3 and Claude 3.5 within Palantir AIP on AWS will equip U.S. defense and intelligence organizations with powerful AI tools that can rapidly process and analyze vast amounts of complex data. This will dramatically improve intelligence analysis and enable officials in their decision-making processes, streamline resource intensive tasks and boost operational efficiency across departments.”
Tech companies that have partnered with the military have drawn protests from within, by employees who are adamantly against working for a company that lends its technology to defense applications, whether it is in software, or devices such as drones, or with large language models. The protests have been ongoing for decades. Employees at Google, Amazon, Microsoft and dozens of other companies have held demonstrations and internal rebellions, and many employees have walked away from well-paying jobs.
OpenAI scaled back its usage policy in early January, when it had included language that “disallowed” usage for military purposes, stating, “We don’t allow the use of our models for the following,” and then under their fifth bullet point, it listed “Activity that has high risk of physical harm, including: Weapons development, and military and warfare.”
The updated version reads: “Don’t use our service to harm yourself or others – for example . . . develop or use weapons.” The terms “military” and “warfare” have been eliminated.
On its website, OpenAI stated its position. “Open AI’s usage policies prohibit anyone from using our technology to harm people, destroy property, or develop weapons. Over the past several months, we’ve also developed a framework for assessing potential national security partnerships—including a set of values to guide this work. Each potential use case is evaluated through a formal process led by our Product Policy and National Security teams for alignment with both our policies and our values.”
OpenAI hired Dane Stuckey on October 15, 2024, as its new Chief Information Security Officer. Mr. Stuckey worked for a decade at Palantir, which specializes in software platforms for big data analytics. Since 2008 Planatir has partnered with the U.S. Army on advanced weapons systems, and also has partnerships with other branches of the U.S. military, including the Air Force, Space Force, Navy and Marines.
Palantir, based in Palo Alto, CA., was awarded a $480 million contract by the Pentagon in May for its AI-powered Maven Smart System prototype, designed to pull together data of different classifications from numerous sources to assist military planners.
On June 13, 2024, OpenAI announced the appointment of Retired U.S. Army General Paul M. Nakasone to its Board of Directors. General Nakasone is a cybersecurity expert, and his appointment likely had more to do with the company shoring up its cybersecurity, but it also gave OpenAI a source of vast military experience.
