Tag: military

OpenAI’s robotics and hardware head leaves in Pentagon protest

Caitlin Kalinowski, head of robotics and consumer hardware at OpenAI, makes no qualms about her feelings on their new contract with the Pentagon, and is resigning in protest, saying that:

— Surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got.

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OpenAI eyes unclassified NATO contract, The Wall Street Journal reports

OpenAI seems to be making a big push for defense contracts. (Picture: DOD photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Dominique A. Pineiro, CC BY 2.0)
Just days after striking a deal with the Pentagon, it would seem that OpenAI is actively pursuing more deals in the defense sector, writes The Wall Street Journal.

During an all-hands meeting at OpenAI on Tuesday, Sam Altman tried to clear the air on their recent Pentagon contract debacle — which has seen some twists and turns before landing on very clear language against use in mass surveillance.

Of note at the meeting, he said that OpenAI was considering a contract to deploy on NATO’s classified network, although he was confirmed to have misspoken by a spokesperson, saying the deal being considered was for the unclassified parts of the defense alliance.

Later on Wednesday, Reuters confirmed that such a deal is indeed under consideration, citing sources «familiar with the matter.»

While talking, he said, among other things, that the US military had been a «great benefit to all of humanity over the last 250 years,» The WSJ writes, and added that «Clearly, the military has done things that I extremely disagree with, and am sure will do more in the future.»

Read more: The Wall Street Journal and Reuters.

Pentagon spat over Anthropic and OpenAI leads to mass exodus from ChatGPT to Claude

Reddit forums for AI and ChatGPT were full of cancel messages over the weekend. (Picture: Screenshot)
People concerned about ethics, and that OpenAI could have entered into a Pentagon contract including internal mass surveillance — that Anthropic refused — have been cancelling their ChatGPT accounts en masse.

A concerted effort to ditch ChatGPT for Claude has emerged online, even affecting reddit fan forums r/ChatGPT, r/OpenAI and the broader r/Singularity, which on Sunday were brimming with posts about moving to Claude.

Top of the list
As a result, Anthropic’s chatbot has climbed to number one, top of the list for productivity apps in the App Store — beating out both OpenAI and Gemini. Last week, it was hovering around 50th.

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Pentagon and Trump unloads on Anthropic, agrees with OpenAI on same safeguards

The Pentagon wants AI to be open for spying, but hardly any frontier lab will agree to this. (Picture: generated)
Calling Anthropic «leftwing nut jobs» and an «out-of-control, Radical Left Woke AI company,» both President Trump and Hegseth at the Pentagon have taken steps to bar the company from Government use.

The spat started when Anthropic refused new terms in their Pentagon contract, saying they would not use their AI for autonomous killing and mass surveillance.

In a stunning reversal, these safeguards are written into an agreement offered just hours later to OpenAI (see below).

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Amodei officially says Anthropic won’t drop Pentagon safeguards

Dario Amodei at TechCrunch Disrupt, 2023. (Picture: TechCrunch (CC BY 2.0))
Following last Friday’s meeting and ultimatum from the Pentagon, which set a deadline to respond by this Friday, Amodei says Anthropic will not comply with the demands.

The Anthropic CEO says they will «work to enable a smooth transition,» after denying the US military use of their AI for mass surveillance or autonomous killing.

— In a narrow set of cases, we believe AI can undermine, rather than defend, democratic values, writes Amodei, — Some uses are also simply outside the bounds of what today’s technology can safely and reliably do.

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xAI agrees to Pentagon contract where Anthropic won’t

It’s unclear whether xAI will be able to fully replace Anthropic inside the Pentagon. (Picture: generated)
xAI models will become available in the Pentagon’s classified networks after having agreed to the «all lawful use» contract, Axios reports.

That means no restrictions on mass surveillance and autonomous lethality that Anthropic refused due to ethical concerns.

It’s not immediately clear whether xAI will be able to replace all Anthropic functions or how soon it can come online, Axios says.

Anthropic is due for a meeting with Secretary Pete Hegseth this Tuesday, where he is expected to present CEO Dario Amodei with an ultimatum to lift its safeguards or be banned.

ChatGPT and Gemini are available on the Pentagon’s unclassified networks, but onboarding them to the classified parts would take time, and dropping Anthropic would be a difficult process, sources tell Axios.

Read more: Axios, New York Times (paywalled). See also Tag: Grok.

Anthropic clashes with Pentagon on lethality, internal surveillance

Anthropic needs a human in the loop for lethal work, and refuses to spy on Americans. (Picture: generated)
The $200 million contract with the Pentagon hangs in the balance as the company refuses to do things that might harm humans or society, Reuters reports.

At issue is whether their AI platform can be used to spy on Americans or to «assist weapons targeting without sufficient human oversight,» sources tell the news agency.

The Pentagon is aghast at Anthropic’s policies and is considering alternatives, saying they should be able to use any commercial AI tech regardless of usage policies so long as it complies with U.S. laws.

The contract is now at a standstill while they figure out their opposing demands.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently wrote that he had no problem supporting defense «in all ways except those which would make us more like our autocratic adversaries.»

Read the full scoop at Reuters.

Ukraine says to share valuable wartime drone data with allies to train AI

A Valkyrie AI drone flies with an F-22. Now, they might get upgrades. (Picture: Tech. Sgt. James Cason, USAF)
Ukraine’s new defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, is sitting on a trove of metrics from four years of drone warfare — and is now using it to train AI.

They will now «establish a system allowing its allies to train their artificial intelligence» on it, Reuters reports.

They are already launching a project with Palantir to produce an AI on the combat data.

The data includes «extensive battlefield information, logs of combat statistics and millions of hours of drone footage,» Reuters writes.

Training an AI for combat needs tons of real-world data, preferably from a real battlefield, not simulations — and this data will be immensely important for Ukraine’s allies, who are all busy developing combat AI drones as we speak.

Read more: Reuters, Financial Times and The Independent.

US Army to purchase one million drones in the next three years

Drones might well be the future of war, and the Pentagon is late to the party.
The USA seems to finally have woken up about drone warfare, but it needs Congress aboard for investments. (Picture: Adobe)
After «learning lessons» from the war in Ukraine, U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll said they will up its drone game, according to Reuters.

The target is to produce millions of drones in the next three years, and to build «robust supply lines» to be able to increase production «to as however much we need.»

There is a bill going through Congress for a megacenter in Texas to produce a million drones, but Driscoll doesn’t want to rely on a single company.

— We want to partner with other drone manufacturers who are using them for Amazon deliveries and all the different use cases, he says.

Meanwhile, the Replicator initiative and Valkyrie fighter drones have spent years in limbo waiting for Congressional approval.

Read more: this is from a Reuters exclusive. See also Defense News.

UN meets on rules for autonomous AI weapons

The AI-powered XQ58-Valkyrie flies alongside us fighter jets.
Autonomous systems pose a challenge to the rules of war, and the UN is trying to reach an agreement. (Picture. Department of Defence)
As more and more AI robots and drones are deployed to the battlefields of the world, the talks are taking on a new urgency.

The UN Secretary General has set a deadline for 2026 to reach an agreement on so-called «killer robots,» while great powers resist.

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— Om 10-15 år er en tredel av militæret robotisk

Nye B-21 Raider kan fly både bemannet og ubemannet. (Bilde: Tech. Sgt. William OBrien, via WIkipedia)

USAs militære stabssjef sier vi står ovenfor en stor innovasjon i styrkene til industrialiserte land, der stadig flere systemer blir ubemannet.

General Mark Milley trakk fram flere aspekter rundt militærets robotiske ambisjoner, overvåking og kunstig intelligens i en nylig tale ved National Press Club i Washington, DC.

— Krigens karakter […] endrer seg fundamentalt med jevne mellomrom, og akkurat nå er vi midt i en slik endring, sier generalen.

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AI fighter drones for the Pentagon looks unlikely for 2025, too

XQ-58 Valkyrie taking off with rockets
An XQ-58 Valkyrie taking off with rockets. Soon, they’ll get landing gears. (Picture: USAF)
If you’ve been waiting for Congress to approve the wide deployment of the XQ-58 Valkyrie for the Air Force, you might need just a little more patience.

As Congress is looking down the barrel of another possible government shutdown in the next couple of days, it seems increasingly likely that the result will be another Continuing Resolution, freezing spending at 2024 levels with no new funding for the Valkyrie.

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Pentagon ber om 600 milliarder kroner til å bestille 2 000 AI-droner

XQ-58 Valkyrie flyr med F22 og F-35: Følgedronen er bygget for å ta risiko for pilotene. (Bilde: USAF.)
XQ-58 Valkyrie-dronen fløy for første gang med AI-kontroll i forrige måned, og nå bekrefter Pentagon at den tiltenkt en større rolle i fremtidens luftforsvar, melder insider.

Den ubemannede dronen fra «Skyborg»—programmet er bygget for å følge jagerfly i luften, og er billig, rask, har lang rekkevidde — og er nå flydd av kunstig intelligens.

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Top Pentagon AI projects on hold in US Budget minibus for 2024

Kratos’ AI-driven XQ-58 Valkyrie can launch from a ramp on land or sea and doesn’t need an airstrip. (Photo: DoD).
The Pentagon’s most forward-looking AI programs will find themselves in a desert of funding until September 2024, but hopes are high when the new 2025 budget kicks in…

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Kunstig intelligens fløy jagerfly-drone i tre timer

Billige og raskt utviklede AI-droner kan være fremtiden til det amerikanske luftvåpenet. Her er XQ-58A Valkyrie. (Bilde: AFRL.)
Det amerikanske luftvåpenet har brukt kunstig intelligens for å kontrollere en følgedrone til jagerflyene sine, et halvt år etter at de gjorde det samme med en F16.

Den nye dronen til USA er designet og produsert på bare to og et halvt år, og er laget for å være en billig, lett erstattelig maskin som kan slippe våpen, gjøre rekognosering, eller fungere i en dronesverm.

Poenget med disse følgeflyene er at de skal være billigere og enklere å bruke enn rådyre, bemannede jagerfly.

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