AI Politics in 2026: Pentagon AI Military

The Core Dispute

Pentagon Position:

Requires "all lawful use" provisions from AI vendors

Wants flexibility for future applications

Focused on Golden Dome, drone swarms, autonomous systems

Anthropic Position:

Two non-negotiables: no mass surveillance of Americans, no fully autonomous weapons

Will not sign contracts creating legal pathways to prohibited uses

Challenging supply chain risk designation in court

OpenAI Position:

Explicit contractual prohibitions on mass surveillance, autonomous weapons, high-stakes automated decisions

Cloud-only deployments with OpenAI personnel in loop

Maintains…

The skinny

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