AI Ethics and The Pentagon

Welcome to the US fascist system of coercion

This would seem crazy in an earlier era, but today almost anything could happen with our current executive branch leadership.

Hegseth met with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Tuesday to deliver a warning — give the military unfettered access to its Claude AI model by Friday evening or else have the government label it a “risk” to the supply chain. The designation, typically reserved for foreign firms with ties to U.S. adversaries, could ban companies that work with the government from partnering with Anthropic.

‘Incoherent’: Hegseth’s Anthropic ultimatum confounds AI policymakers (Politico, 26 Feb 2026)

Ethics are vitally important, whatever the US secretary of defense may say or think. AI companies based in the United States should maintain their right to opt OUT of serving the military industrial complex if they want, without being formally labeled “an enemy of the state.”

It’s called “the US free enterprise system,” not the “US fascist system of coercion.” Or it was for most of my lifetime, before the last presidential election...