HOW TALKS BETWEEN ANTHROPIC AND THE DEFENSE DEPT. FELL APART

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

Emil Michael, the Department of War's chief technology officer, had been negotiating with Anthropic for weeks on a $200 million AI contract. The talks had hit an obstacle as Anthropic would not allow its technology to be used for purposes such as the surveillance of Americans. Michael demanded that Anthropic's CEO, Dario Amodei, get on the phone to discuss the issue, but he was told Amodei was in a meeting with his executive team and needed more time. Michael had been hammering out a deal with OpenAI on the side, so the Department of War designated Anthropic as a security risk and cut it off from working with the government.