{"id":218904,"date":"2026-03-01T23:32:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T04:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/01\/the-pentagon-strongarmed-ai-firms-before-iran-strikes-in-dark-news-for-the-future-of-ethical-ai\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T23:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T04:55:08","slug":"the-pentagon-strongarmed-ai-firms-before-iran-strikes-in-dark-news-for-the-future-of-ethical-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/01\/the-pentagon-strongarmed-ai-firms-before-iran-strikes-in-dark-news-for-the-future-of-ethical-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pentagon strongarmed AI firms before Iran strikes \u2013 in dark news for the future of \u2018ethical AI\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pentagon strongarmed AI firms before Iran strikes \u2013 in dark news for the future of \u2018ethical AI\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/theconversation.com\/the-pentagon-strongarmed-ai-firms-before-iran-strikes-in-dark-news-for-the-future-of-ethical-ai-277198<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-03-01 23:32:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: theconversation.com<\/a><\/p>\n

In the leadup to the weekend\u2019s US and Israeli attacks on Iran, the US Department of Defense was locked in tense negotiations with artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic over exactly how the Pentagon could use the firm\u2019s technology.<\/p>\n

Anthropic wanted guarantees its Claude systems would not be used for purposes such as domestic surveillance in the US and operating autonomous weapons without human control. <\/p>\n

In response, US president Donald Trump on Friday directed all US federal agencies to cease using Anthropic\u2019s technology, saying he would \u201cnever allow a radical left, woke company to dictate how our great military fights and wins wars!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hours later, rival AI lab OpenAI (maker of ChatGPT) announced it had struck its own deal with the Department of Defense. The key difference appears to be that OpenAI permits \u201call lawful uses\u201d of its tools, without specifying ethical lines OpenAI won\u2019t cross.<\/p>\n

What does this mean for military AI? Is it the end for the idea of \u201cethical AI\u201d in warfare? <\/p>\n

AI companies and regulation<\/h2>\n

Last week\u2019s events come at what was already a worrying time for AI ethics. The Trump administration last year banned states from regulating AI, claiming that it threatens innovation. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, many AI companies have aligned themselves with the administration, with executives including OpenAI boss Sam Altman making million-dollar donations to Trump\u2019s inauguration fund. (Altman noted at the time that he has also donated to Democratic politicians.) <\/p>\n

Anthropic has been less effusive, working on national security while warning that AI can sometimes undermine democracy and that current systems are not reliable enough to power fully autonomous weapons.<\/p>\n

An emerging international consensus<\/h2>\n

Much of the concern around military applications of AI has focused on lethal autonomous weapons systems. These are devices and software which can choose targets and attack them without human intervention.<\/p>\n

Just a few years ago, an…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pentagon strongarmed AI firms before Iran strikes \u2013 in dark news for the future…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":218905,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/721216\/original\/file-20260302-67-zwamqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&rect=1025%2C278%2C2474%2C1237&q=45&auto=format&w=1356&h=668&fit=crop","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-218904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218904"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":218906,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218904\/revisions\/218906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}