For most Americans, the conflict between OpenAI and Anthropic may have little meaning and be far beyond any concern. But in the race among corporations to bring artificial intelligence to the masses, the contest has become increasingly contentious. And the Trump administration and the Pentagon are, as expected, critically involved in the outcome.
Interestingly, the rivalry between these two Silicon Valley companies stems from a basic disagreement between the leaders, Sam Altman of OpenAI, and Dario Amodei of Anthropic. Before leaving OpenAI, Amodei served as vice president of research. Many of you who spend time keeping up with the ins and outs of the tech industry and its key movers and shakers are well aware of these developments.
At play in this drama is the extent to which the companies comply and capitulate to the Pentagon and its use of intelligence for its war machine and surveillance of civilians. The court is still out on this matter, but when Trump stated he had fired Anthropic, you can get some indication of where our feelings lie.
Even as we were composing our editorial, Anthropic sued the Department of Defense on Monday, challenging the Pentagon’s decision to label it a “supply chain risk,” thereby escalating the dispute over the use of artificial intelligence in warfare. For the first time, an American company is deemed a major security risk. Several weeks ago, we weighed in on the copyright lawsuit, Bartz v. Anthropic, brought by authors against the company for using books without permission, and that piracy was not fair use. Like the final judgment on the copyright lawsuit, we await the outcome of the suit against the Department of Defense.