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Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦Feb 28

Trump orders US agencies to stop using Anthropic technology in clash over AI safety
https://apnews.com/article/anthropic-pentagon-ai-hegseth-dario-amodei-b72d1894bc842d9acf026df3867bee8a

Would be super funny if that's what causes the bubble to start popping.

#AI #Hype #Anthropic

Trump orders all US agencies to stop using Anthropic's AI

President Donald Trump has ordered all U.S. agencies to stop using Anthropic technology after the company’s unusually public dispute with the Pentagon over artificial intelligence safety. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also said Friday he was designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk, a move that could prevent U.S. military vendors from working with the company. Trump’s comments Friday came just before the Pentagon’s deadline for Anthropic to allow unrestricted military use of its AI technology or face consequences. Anthropic says it will challenge the supply risk designation in court.

AP News

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦Feb 28

Basically, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wants to be able to use Anthropic's AI models for things Anthropic is not comfortable with: mass domestic surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons.

Anthropic said "no". Whiskey Pete is throwing a tantrum, and Trump is supporting him in it.

This is highly entertaining on many levels.

One level is that a company peddling dangerous technology to fascists is suddenly learning the hard way how instrumentally the fascists treat them.

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

Another level is that even in their rebuttals of Department of Defense (as it is still officially called!), Anthropic appeases the fascists by using the unofficial "Department of War" moniker:
https://www.anthropic.com/news/statement-comments-secretary-war

That's one of the reasons why I am not taking Anthropic's pushback seriously. It's not about any actual moral stance, it's about being able to do business with the fascists while not looking too bad publicly.

Statement on the comments from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth

Anthropic's response to the Secretary of War and advice for customers

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦Feb 28

In that context, ironically, Hegseth is not wrong about how sanctimonious the rhetoric of effective altruism is:
https://xcancel.com/SecWar/status/2027507717469049070

But here's the kicker – all the AI bubble barons are in the effective altruism and the wider TESCREAL bundle:
https://techwontsave.us/episode/198_how_effective_accelerationism_divides_silicon_valley_w_emile_torres

It's only become a problem for Whiskey Pete now because Anthropic is being difficult.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar)

This week, Anthropic delivered a master class in arrogance and betrayal as well as a textbook case of how not to do business with the United States Government or the Pentagon. Our position has never wavered and will never waver: the Department of War must have full, unrestricted access to Anthropic’s models for every LAWFUL purpose in defense of the Republic. Instead, @AnthropicAI and its CEO @DarioAmodei, have chosen duplicity. Cloaked in the sanctimonious rhetoric of “effective altruism,” they have attempted to strong-arm the United States military into submission - a cowardly act of corporate virtue-signaling that places Silicon Valley ideology above American lives. The Terms of Service of Anthropic’s defective altruism will never outweigh the safety, the readiness, or the lives of American troops on the battlefield. Their true objective is unmistakable: to seize veto power over the operational decisions of the United States military. That is unacceptable. As President Trump stated on Truth Social, the Commander-in-Chief and the American people alone will determine the destiny of our armed forces, not unelected tech executives. Anthropic’s stance is fundamentally incompatible with American principles. Their relationship with the United States Armed Forces and the Federal Government has therefore been permanently altered. In conjunction with the President's directive for the Federal Government to cease all use of Anthropic's technology, I am directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a Supply-Chain Risk to National Security. Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic. Anthropic will continue to provide the Department of War its services for a period of no more than six months to allow for a seamless transition to a better and more patriotic service. America’s warfighters will never be held hostage by the ideological whims of Big Tech. This decision is final.

Nitter

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦Feb 28

But the best part is that, as noted by Dean W. Ball – a former Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, under Trump! – "DeepSeek is now treated much more kindly by the United States government than anthropic":
https://xcancel.com/deanwball/status/2027540776402747853#m

Hegseth designating Anthropic as a "supply chain risk" means that no entity providing services to the US government can do business with Anthropic.

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦Feb 28

Consider what this means in practice. Again Dean W. Ball:

> Nvidia, Amazon, Google will have to divest from Anthropic if Hegseth gets his way. This is simply attempted corporate murder. I could not possibly recommend investing in American AI to any investor; I could not possibly recommend starting an AI company in the United States.

https://xcancel.com/deanwball/status/2027515599358730315#m

So…

Would be super funny if that's what causes the bubble to start popping.

Dean W. Ball (@deanwball)

Nvidia, Amazon, Google will have to divest from Anthropic if Hegseth gets his way. This is simply attempted corporate murder. I could not possibly recommend investing in American AI to any investor; I could not possibly recommend starting an AI company in the United States.

Nitter

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦Feb 28

Oh, and I forgot about another level of comedy here: US government throwing a tantrum because *checks notes* it does not have enough technological sovereignty from US tech behemoths.

While at the same time actively pushing against EU's policies related to technological sovereignty:
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/us-orders-diplomats-fight-data-sovereignty-initiatives-2026-02-25/

This is truly comedy gold.

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦Feb 28

Also, this would be a *great* time to ask other AI hype peddlers – Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta, Google – if they are comfortable with US DoD using their models for mass domestic surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons.

Put them on the spot. Make them squirm trying to answer this question in a way that is not a major PR disaster, and not find themselves on Hegseth's "naughty" list.

Just a trash panda 🦝Feb 28

@rysiek Sam Altman answered that question earlier today on Twitter already in the affirmative. So OpenAI at least is on board.

@trashpanda @rysiek

Publicly it is on board, but it has also been granted access to run on the secure network and we know how they work when money is taken away

https://www.reuters.com/business/openai-reaches-deal-deploy-ai-models-us-department-war-classified-network-2026-02-28/

@rysiek Of course they are. Microsoft already powers a lot of that.

And Google's history with the CIA is well-known. Who can forget the state sponsored terrorists? (That's the CIA, in case it wasn't clear.)

Facebook/FaceMeta doesn't mind mass surveillance and encouragement of a genocide or two, either.

OpenAI most probably follow suit to that last one as well. Possibly participation if one includes cultural destruction.

@rysiek whats the bet that all these military laser mishaps are because of ai, and swapping out anthropic models for deepseek ones will let china steer the lasers

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦Feb 28

@Viss Hanlon's Razor applies. Incompetence and pettiness (on part of DoD) in communicating with the FAA is a sufficient explanation. Or are you talking about some other mishaps?

@rysiek no, thats the one. yesterdays and then 2ish weeks agos version of the same. its just amusing to think that they tried to get claude to drive the laser around and it just started shooting at everything

Mason Loring Bliss Feb 28

@rysiek I can't read this without hearing "corporations are people, my friend".

Dźwiedziu Mar 1

@rysiek
Even more comedy xD

https://xcancel.com/grok/status/2027518650710700068#m

Mateusz 🏳️‍🌈Mar 1

@dzwiedziu Wait!

> Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic.

That’s cancel culture 😱

Dźwiedziu Mar 1

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦Mar 1

@aemstuz @dzwiedziu

lord pthenq1 Feb 28

@rysiek
The problem for the company is that if it loosens its grip and allows controversial use, its employees will leave the company and start another one.

Creating that technology is not easy.

And those employees can literally do whatever they want because they'll be welcomed with open arms by any other company, and any investor will put money into them.

And the money it loses on defense contracts is nothing compared to what it's gaining in other areas.

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦Feb 28

@pthenq1 all other big companies, the ones that can pay the salaries these important employees got used to, are working with the DoD on this shit.

If they want to have that kind of leverage, they need to unionize. They are not unionizing, so that leverage is completely illusory.

And the money from DoD contracts is usually the big bucks companies like this make. The whole shtick is to try to convince military to pay for their toys.

lord pthenq1 Feb 28

@rysiek
They can create their own companies. That is how Anthropic was created. They left from Open AI

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦Feb 28

@pthenq1 sure, but the market today is different than however many years ago Anthropic was founded. It's way, way harder to break into the AI hype market.

Again, if they really wanted to have agency here, Anthropic's employees should unionize.

divVerent Feb 28

@rysiek I do wonder if they actually want to do it but be forced by the government so they can shrug, tell everyone it was not their decision, and keep raking in government bucks by actively taking part in deportations and killing.

@rysiek I don't understand why you need to put Athropic on a moral stance, like on a solitary rebellion against warmongers. It's a corporation, it tries (maybe) to be decent, it's not our hero

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦Feb 28

@filobus corporations don't try to be decent, corporations (especially in the USA) have legal obligations to maximize shareholder value.

I am pushing back against the interpretation I am seeing that Anthropic suddenly is "acting ethically" or has a "moral stance" here. It does not. It's a corporation. And its purpose is to make money.

@rysiek yeah, I simply dismiss those claims ad soon I meet them
It could be, it should be, but it's not influential in those days
To make the difference there should be a major change in political and economical situation
It could be a hope in a different landscape, but it's better not to hope too much, change doesn't come from one company

@rysiek Hasn't the appellation of Defense been a joke for a rather long while considering the role the USA usually takes?