All posts tagged: DOD

DOD officials say Iran war has cost billion so far during Congressional grilling : NPR

DOD officials say Iran war has cost $25 billion so far during Congressional grilling : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

The Pentagon says that the cost of the war with Iran is estimated to be some $25 billion. Defense officials were appearing on the Hill for budget discussions. JUANA SUMMERS, HOST: Twenty-five billion dollars – that’s how much the Pentagon estimates the war with Iran is costing. That figure came up today during a hearing on the Hill on the Pentagon’s $1.45 trillion budget request. But the questions, they weren’t just about the costs. They were about the rationale for the war itself and just how it might end. For more, we turn now to NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman. Hi there. TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Hey, Juana. SUMMERS: Tom, what’d you learn today? BOWMAN: Well, this is the first hearing involving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine since the war started back in February. And again, for the first time, we have a cost estimate from Pentagon officials – $25 billion for the war that is now entering its third month. Secretary Hegseth talked about the overall budget request for …

DOD has no anti-corruption protocols for Trump children

DOD has no anti-corruption protocols for Trump children

Published by Sam Flores

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., talks with reporters after a Senate Armed Services Committee closed briefing on the Iran war, in the Capitol Visitor Center on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the Department of Defense has no plan to stop President Donald Trump’s family from profiting on lucrative defense contracts in a Tuesday letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, shared exclusively with CNBC. The letter comes after the Pentagon sent Warren a response to a January inquiry the Massachusetts Democrat sent to the department seeking answers about the agency’s contracting with the Trump children. CNBC has also reviewed the previously unreported Defense Department response, which Warren said failed to answer her questions about potential Trump family involvement in the agency’s contracting decisions. Read more CNBC politics coverage “It failed to provide answers to the vast majority of questions that we asked regarding DoD’s decision making process for the contracts and loan guarantees referenced in our January 22, 2026 letter,” Warren wrote of the Defense Department’s …

‘Uncanny Valley’: Anthropic’s DOD Lawsuit, War Memes, and AI Coming for VC Jobs

‘Uncanny Valley’: Anthropic’s DOD Lawsuit, War Memes, and AI Coming for VC Jobs

Published by skeptic

Brian Barrett: The irony is my favorite part because I feel like venture capitalists have largely positioned themselves as immune to the effects of AI because they’re very special and surely a machine can— Zoë Schiffer: It’s art, not science. Brian Barrett: Yeah. It’s art, not science. Machines can take every job, but not us. The ladder stops just below VC for them in a way that is entertaining and fun. So I wonder how many people are actually using this now, especially because venture capitalists themselves are so skeptical of it, it seems like. Who’s the audience? Is it finding real traction out there? Zoë Schiffer: Yeah. So the way that ADIN works is they have scouts that go out and look for potential deals, and then those scouts can make money on said deals. So I think this would be something where VCs wouldn’t necessarily be adopting the network, but people would be going around them and they wouldn’t be as necessary, as useful. I think there was another great irony, which Arielle …

OpenAI and Google employees rush to Anthropic’s defense in DOD lawsuit

OpenAI and Google employees rush to Anthropic’s defense in DOD lawsuit

Published by skeptic

More than 30 OpenAI and Google DeepMind employees filed a statement Monday supporting Anthropic’s lawsuit against the U.S. Defense Department after the federal agency labeled the AI firm a supply-chain risk, according to court filings. “The government’s designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk was an improper and arbitrary use of power that has serious ramifications for our industry,” reads the brief, whose signatories include Google DeepMind chief scientist Jeff Dean. Late last week, the Pentagon labeled Anthropic a supply-chain risk — usually reserved for foreign adversaries — after the AI firm refused to allow the Department of Defense (DOD) to use its technology for mass surveillance of Americans or autonomously firing weapons. The DOD had argued that it should be able to use AI for any “lawful” purpose and not be constrained by a private contractor. The amicus brief in support of Anthropic showed up on the docket a few hours after the Claude maker filed two lawsuits against the DOD and other federal agencies. Wired was first to report the news. In …

Microsoft, Google, Amazon say Anthropic Claude remains available to non-defense customers

Microsoft, Google, Amazon say Anthropic Claude remains available to non-defense customers

Published by skeptic

Enterprises and startups that use Anthropic Claude through Microsoft and Google products need not fear that the model will be ripped from their reach, Microsoft and Google confirmed to TechCrunch. AWS customers and partners can also reportedly continue to use Claude for their non-defense associated workloads. Microsoft was the first big tech company to offer assurance that Anthropic’s models will remain available to its customers even though the Trump administration’s Department of War — formally known as the Department of Defense — has escalated its feud with Anthropic. The Defense Department officially designated the American AI startup as a supply-chain risk on Thursday after the AI company refused to give it unrestricted access to its tech for applications the company said its AI could not safely support, such as mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. The supply-chain risk designation is typically reserved for foreign adversaries. For Anthropic, the designation means that the Pentagon won’t be able to use the company’s products once it transitions Claude off its systems. It also requires any company or agency …

Is the Pentagon allowed to surveil Americans with AI?

Is the Pentagon allowed to surveil Americans with AI?

Published by skeptic

That’s because until the last several decades, people weren’t generating massive clouds of data that opened up new possibilities for surveillance. The Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure, was written when collecting information meant entering people’s homes.  Subsequent laws, like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 or the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, were passed when surveillance involved wiretapping phone calls and intercepting emails. The bulk of laws governing surveillance were on the books before the internet took off. We weren’t generating vast trails of online data, and the government didn’t have sophisticated tools to analyze the data.  Now we do, and AI supercharges what kind of surveillance can be carried out. “What AI can do is it can take a lot of information, none of which is by itself sensitive, and therefore none of which by itself is regulated, and it can give the government a lot of powers that the government didn’t have before,” says Rozenshtein.  AI can aggregate individual pieces of information to spot patterns, draw inferences, …

Anthropic to challenge DOD’s supply-chain label in court

Anthropic to challenge DOD’s supply-chain label in court

Published by skeptic

Dario Amodei said Thursday that Anthropic plans to challenge the Department of Defense’s decision to label the AI firm a supply-chain risk in court, a designation he has called “legally unsound.” The statement comes a few hours after the DOD officially designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk following a weeks-long dispute over how much control the military should have over AI systems. A supply-chain risk designation can bar a company from working with the Pentagon and its contractors. Amodei drew a firm line that Anthropic’s AI will not be used for mass surveillance of Americans or for fully autonomous weapons, but the Pentagon believed it should have unrestricted access for “all lawful purposes.” In his statement, Amodei said the vast majority of Anthropic’s customers are unaffected by the supply-chain risk designation. “With respect to our customers, it plainly applies only to the use of Claude by customers as a direct part of contracts with the Department of War, not all use of Claude by customers who have such contracts,” he said. As a preview of what Anthropic will …

ChatGPT uninstalls surged by 295% after DoD deal

ChatGPT uninstalls surged by 295% after DoD deal

Published by skeptic

U.S. app uninstalls of ChatGPT’s mobile app jumped 295% day-over-day on Saturday, February 28, as consumers responded to the news of OpenAI’s deal with the Department of Defense (DoD), which has been rebranded under the Trump administration as the Department of War. This data, which comes from market intelligence provider Sensor Tower, represents a sizable increase compared with ChatGPT’s typical day-over-day uninstall rate of 9%, as measured over the past 30 days. Meanwhile, U.S. downloads for OpenAI competitor Anthropic’s Claude jumped up by 37% day-over-day on Friday, February 27, and 51% as of Saturday, February 28, after the company announced that it would not partner with the U.S. defense department. Anthropic said it was not able to agree on the deal terms over concerns that AI would be used to surveil Americans and be used in fully autonomous weaponry, which AI is not yet ready to do safely. A set of consumers seemingly favored Anthropic’s position on the matter, the data suggests. In addition, ChatGPT’s download growth was impacted by the news of its DoD …

Tech workers urge DOD, Congress to withdraw Anthropic label as a supply chain risk

Tech workers urge DOD, Congress to withdraw Anthropic label as a supply chain risk

Published by skeptic

Hundreds of tech workers have signed an open letter urging the Department of Defense to withdraw its designation of Anthropic as a “supply chain risk.” The letter also calls on Congress to step in and “examine whether the use of these extraordinary authorities against an American technology company is appropriate.” The letter includes signatories from major technology and venture capital firms including OpenAI, Slack, IBM, Cursor, Salesforce Ventures, and more. It follows a dispute between the DOD and Anthropic after the AI lab last week refused to give the military unrestricted access to its AI systems.  Anthropic’s two red lines in its negotiations with the Pentagon were that it didn’t want its technology to be used for mass surveillance on Americans or to power autonomous weapons that made targeting and firing decisions without a human in the loop. The DOD said it had no plans to do either of those things, but that it didn’t believe it should be limited by the rules of a vendor.  In response to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s refusal to …

Anthropic vs. the Pentagon: What’s actually at stake?

Anthropic vs. the Pentagon: What’s actually at stake?

Published by skeptic

The past two weeks have been defined by a clash between Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as the two battle over the military’s use of AI.  Anthropic refuses to allow its AI models to be used for mass surveillance of Americans or for fully autonomous weapons that conduct strikes without human input. At the same time, Secretary Hegseth has argued the Department of Defense shouldn’t be limited by the rules of a vendor, arguing any “lawful use” of the technology should be permitted. On Thursday, Amodei publicly signaled that Anthropic isn’t backing down – despite threats that his company could be designated as a supply chain risk as a result. But with the news cycle moving fast, it’s worth revisiting exactly what’s at stake in the fight. At its core, this fight is about who controls powerful AI systems — the companies that build them, or the government that wants to deploy them. What is Anthropic worried about? As we said above, Anthropic doesn’t want its AI models to be used …