The Pentagon expands its partnerships with the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. The command center of the U.S. defense announced this Friday agreements with eight companies, including giants OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, SpaceX, Oracle, and Nvidia, to deploy their AI capabilities in the classified networks of the Department of War (Defense). Several of them were already working with the entity. According to a Pentagon statement, they will now be integrated into its secret and top-secret network environments, which will imply greater use in sensitive matters.
Companies and Administration “share the conviction that U.S. leadership in AI is indispensable for national security,” reads an official statement. The agreements “will strengthen the ability of our fighters to maintain superiority in decision-making in all areas of warfare,” it adds. The Pentagon’s own AI platform, GenAI.mil, is used by 1.3 million employees and allows reducing task execution time “from months to days,” it states.
The agreements keep Anthropic, owner of the Claude platform, sidelined, which clashed with Donald Trump for refusing to allow its AI to be used for military purposes or citizen control. As a result, it was classified as a risk in the supply chain and banned from Pentagon contracts and its suppliers. The Department of War’s technology head, Emil Michael, told CNBC that Anthropic still represented a risk. However, he stated that Mythos, the company’s AI model with advanced cyber capabilities that has caused a stir for its ability to exploit security gaps, is a separate case. Last week Trump indicated that the company’s perception was improving, opening a possibility to reverse its ban.
Among the new agreements is Reflection AI, a startup less known to the general public. The company counts Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, among its investors and partners through his venture capital firm 1789 Capital, Reuters details. By expanding the AI providers offered to the troops, the Pentagon seeks to avoid dependence on a single company. The troops use the tools for planning, logistics, or target selection, with the idea of simplifying and speeding up larger-scale operations.
