This isn’t a grad school seminar. It’s war. If you sell battlefield tools to the United States and then try to veto their lawful use mid-conflict, you’re not a conscience — you’re a liability. The War Powers structure puts authority where it belongs: elected leadership accountable to voters. If a contractor deliberately restricts or sabotages systems in a way that endangers American forces, prosecutors don’t need philosophy — they need indictments. You don’t get to take defense money and then play Commander in Chief from Silicon Valley. If you can’t stomach the mission, don’t bid the contract. But don’t endanger American lives and call it virtue.
Look, we don't want killer robots or mass AI surveillance. We don't want this. Do you?
This argument is weak, weak, weak. It's biased and tendentious. And it's anti free market.
Say it with me: If you don't want a product, don't buy it.
Anthropic is saying our product will allow you do all kinds of things but it won't allow you to do Super Evil Sh*t.
And then the govt says "but, but, but what if we want to do Super Evil Sh*t?"
And Anthropic says, no, you can't do that with our software.
If you don't want this product, you don't buy it.
The gov't has two choices. Agree NOT to do Super Evil Sh*t, or go find a different product.
They can go see if someone else is willing to enable them to do Super Evil Sh*t. Personally, I hope that no AI company enables our govt to do Super Evil Sh*t, but we'll have to see.
And here comes AMUSE arguing and screaming: you have to let our govt do Super Evil Sh*t.
Why?
At the very least, Anthropic should be applauded for having the spinal integrity to do this rather than be venal or evil.
But AMUSE just cant bring himself to rational thought for some reason, probably because Trump wants to do Super Evil Sh*t. I've watched this substack go from brilliant and uncompromised prior to Trump's election to full disingenuous biased Trump cheerleader. I imagine AMUSE is aiming for a position in the administration. That makes the most sense. Or, help me out, has this substack ever been even mildly critical of Trump on anything?
While I generally agree with this analysis, one can also remember how the Biden administration justified using technology in any number of ways AGAINST their US opposition.
Imagining the AI-related technology designed to fight US foreign enemies being turned against the American people by future bad-acting party administrations is clearly not out of the realm of possibility. Yes, it would be an unlawful act, but did that even slightly discourage the Biden administration from doing it anyway? It sure did not. And as far as I can see, to this day, no one has been held accountable for those blatantly unconstitutional acts.
The law is only as powerful as those willing to uphold it. The democrats believe it to be “optional”.
Another analogy would be that when a painter is commissioned to do a portrait or a writer is commissioned to ghost write a book, the work product (and any potential uses) becomes the property of the person who commissioned it.
The contractor is not the only party with agency in this situation. Although Anthropic may be ahead in the AI game at the moment, if the Defense Dept blackballed them because of their demands, 2 things would happen. First, shareholders or investors would exert pressure on the Board to adjust to industry norms for defense contractors. There are not that many customers for AI guided weaponry and I suspect none of those customers would be ok with giving Anthropic veto power. Second, competitors would soon catch up if they had surplus R&D money from lucrative defense contracts and Anthropic did not. Is this problem not solved by normal market forces?
Is it or is it not, already in established law that the AI or any weaponry cannot be used against Americans? Say the Republican Party is deemed by some future (God forbid) Democrat administration to be illegal, (wouldn’t put it past them), deeming them a “domestic enemy”. Then all bets are off.
What we saw at the State of the Union and in the responses is that about half the country wouldn't fight for the country for one reason or another. The Anthropic situation is a reflection of that, and it's another sad reminder of the loss of patriotism across our entire nation.
This isn’t a grad school seminar. It’s war. If you sell battlefield tools to the United States and then try to veto their lawful use mid-conflict, you’re not a conscience — you’re a liability. The War Powers structure puts authority where it belongs: elected leadership accountable to voters. If a contractor deliberately restricts or sabotages systems in a way that endangers American forces, prosecutors don’t need philosophy — they need indictments. You don’t get to take defense money and then play Commander in Chief from Silicon Valley. If you can’t stomach the mission, don’t bid the contract. But don’t endanger American lives and call it virtue.
Wow, this is a new low.
Look, we don't want killer robots or mass AI surveillance. We don't want this. Do you?
This argument is weak, weak, weak. It's biased and tendentious. And it's anti free market.
Say it with me: If you don't want a product, don't buy it.
Anthropic is saying our product will allow you do all kinds of things but it won't allow you to do Super Evil Sh*t.
And then the govt says "but, but, but what if we want to do Super Evil Sh*t?"
And Anthropic says, no, you can't do that with our software.
If you don't want this product, you don't buy it.
The gov't has two choices. Agree NOT to do Super Evil Sh*t, or go find a different product.
They can go see if someone else is willing to enable them to do Super Evil Sh*t. Personally, I hope that no AI company enables our govt to do Super Evil Sh*t, but we'll have to see.
And here comes AMUSE arguing and screaming: you have to let our govt do Super Evil Sh*t.
Why?
At the very least, Anthropic should be applauded for having the spinal integrity to do this rather than be venal or evil.
But AMUSE just cant bring himself to rational thought for some reason, probably because Trump wants to do Super Evil Sh*t. I've watched this substack go from brilliant and uncompromised prior to Trump's election to full disingenuous biased Trump cheerleader. I imagine AMUSE is aiming for a position in the administration. That makes the most sense. Or, help me out, has this substack ever been even mildly critical of Trump on anything?
While I generally agree with this analysis, one can also remember how the Biden administration justified using technology in any number of ways AGAINST their US opposition.
Imagining the AI-related technology designed to fight US foreign enemies being turned against the American people by future bad-acting party administrations is clearly not out of the realm of possibility. Yes, it would be an unlawful act, but did that even slightly discourage the Biden administration from doing it anyway? It sure did not. And as far as I can see, to this day, no one has been held accountable for those blatantly unconstitutional acts.
The law is only as powerful as those willing to uphold it. The democrats believe it to be “optional”.
Another analogy would be that when a painter is commissioned to do a portrait or a writer is commissioned to ghost write a book, the work product (and any potential uses) becomes the property of the person who commissioned it.
The contractor is not the only party with agency in this situation. Although Anthropic may be ahead in the AI game at the moment, if the Defense Dept blackballed them because of their demands, 2 things would happen. First, shareholders or investors would exert pressure on the Board to adjust to industry norms for defense contractors. There are not that many customers for AI guided weaponry and I suspect none of those customers would be ok with giving Anthropic veto power. Second, competitors would soon catch up if they had surplus R&D money from lucrative defense contracts and Anthropic did not. Is this problem not solved by normal market forces?
Is it or is it not, already in established law that the AI or any weaponry cannot be used against Americans? Say the Republican Party is deemed by some future (God forbid) Democrat administration to be illegal, (wouldn’t put it past them), deeming them a “domestic enemy”. Then all bets are off.
What we saw at the State of the Union and in the responses is that about half the country wouldn't fight for the country for one reason or another. The Anthropic situation is a reflection of that, and it's another sad reminder of the loss of patriotism across our entire nation.