Trump administration doubles down on Anthropic blacklisting in court arguments

The Trump administration defended its designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk in oral arguments in federal court Tuesday, even as it actively tries to figure out how it can adopt its most powerful model yet, Mythos, to combat cyber threats. Why it matters: Treating a U.S. company as a national security threat while looking to use its technology to combat foreign adversaries is an awkward needle to thread. Catch up quick: The Pentagon claims it's unworkable for the military or its vendors to rely on Anthropic because the company might pull the plug at any time due to its "ideological" views around AI safety. Unlike other model-makers, Anthropic refused to agree to the Pentagon's "all lawful use" standard for AI deployment. Anthropic argues it has no way to control its AI models once they're deployed in classified settings, and has stuck to its red lines around the use of its tools for mass domestic surveillance or the development of weapons that fire without human involvement. What they're saying: The Pentagon faced skepticism from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in Tuesday's arguments. "For the life of me, I do not see any evidence of maliciousness despite the best efforts of [Pentagon Under Secretary Emil Michael], who in his memo refers to you as having mal-intent, a bad motive, cannot be trusted," DC federal appeals court Judge Karen Henderson said. "To me this is just a spectacular overreach by the department." But Anthropic found itself on the defensive, too. In an exchange with Anthropic's lawyer, Judge Gregory Katsas pinpointed the difficulty of the company's usage policies for evolving AI models. "It doesn't really matter whether we focus on what might happen with the one they're currently using or what might happen with the one that everyone knows they will need three months from now, because AI three months from now will be totally different from the AI of today." Katsas and Judge Neomi Rao raised the Pentagon's con...

Original source: Axios