Pentagon announces deal with seven AI companies for classified systems

Most recent instance of department integrating with AI comes amid Anthropic standoff, concern over use in Iran war.

Washington, DC – The United States Department of Defense has announced a new agreement with seven Artificial Intelligence companies to use their advanced technologies for its classified networks.

The announcement on Friday is the latest instance of closer integration between the Pentagon, which has been expanding its use of AI for about a decade.

It comes amid wider scrutiny over involvement by companies with the US military, which has gained renewed attention amid a public fallout with the AI company Anthropic and questions over how AI has been used in the US-Israeli war with Iran.

In a statement, the Department of Defense said the new agreements with SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Reflection, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services “accelerate the transformation towards establishing the United States military as an AI-first fighting force and will strengthen our warfighters’ ability to maintain decision superiority across all domains of warfare”.

It said the companies’ capabilities would be used in its most secure information systems to “streamline data synthesis, elevate situational understanding and augment warfighter decision-making in complex operational environments”.

Noticeably absent from the Pentagon’s list was Anthropic, which had a major fallout with the Pentagon after pushing back on pressure to provide unrestricted access to its Claude AI programme for “all lawful use”.

The appeal raised concerns over Claude’s possible uses in government mass surveillance and autonomous weapons systems. The Pentagon, in turn, labelled the company a “supply chain risk”.

The two sides have since been locked in a protracted court battle, although there have been some signs of detente.

In particular, there has been an increasing desire from the administration to access Anthropic’s powerful new Mythos AI model, which is seen as a potentially transformative tool in both cyber attacks and cyber defence.

The Pentagon’s agreements with OpenAI and Google had previously been confirmed, as had a deal with Elon Musk’s xAI. The three companies had agreed to the Pentagon’s “all lawful use” provision as part of those agreements.

In its statement, the Pentagon said that over 1.3 million department personnel use its official AI platform, GenAI.mil.

“Warfighters, civilians and contractors are putting these capabilities to practical use right now, cutting many tasks from months to days,” it said.

It vowed to continue building the department’s AI architecture to avoid so-called “vendor lock”, a term for over-reliance on one vendor.

Scrutiny grows

The US government’s use of AI has gained increasing scrutiny amid its mass deportation campaign, with rights groups saying the technology company Palantir has been used to collect real-time data on potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) targets, including pro-Palestine advocates.

Amid the US-Israel war in Iran, questions have been raised over how AI targeting systems are being used. The Pentagon has said it has hit 13,000 targets since beginning attacks on February 28.

At least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, including at least 170 people, mostly children, in an apparent US Tomahawk strike on a girls’ school in Minab. The Pentagon has said it is still investigating.

Speaking during a Senate committee hearing on Thursday, US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand questioned Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on civilian harm oversight and the use of AI.

Hegseth responded that “no military, no country works harder at every echelon to ensure they protect civilian lives than the United States military, and that is an ironclad commitment that we make, no matter how…no matter what system we use”.