U.S. Department of Defense Signs 'Classified Work' Agreement With 7 AI Firms, Excluding Anthropic

[Financial News] The United States Department of Defense (DoD) has signed a 'classified work' agreement with seven companies, including SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA Corporation, Reflection, Microsoft (MS), and Amazon Web Services (AWS), and will deploy their advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technologies on military classified computer networks.
The DoD said it plans to use AI to analyze battlefield data and improve decision-making.
Anthropic, however, was left out of the agreement. It is believed to have been designated by the DoD as a supply chain risk company after it asked that its AI technology not be used for surveillance operations in the United States or for autonomous lethal weapons.
According to a report by The New York Times (NYT) on the 1st local time, the DoD officially announced that it had signed classified work agreements with the seven companies "to continue building an architecture that prevents dependence on AI vendors and ensures long-term flexibility for the joint force." It added that the move "will accelerate the process of transforming the U.S. military into an AI-first combat force and strengthen the ability to maintain decision-making advantages for warfighters across all battlefield domains."
The financial terms of the contracts were not disclosed.

By signing classified work agreements with seven companies this time, the DoD appears to have made clear its determination not to become dependent on any single AI company, and the U.S. government's efforts to diversify its AI supply chain are expected to expand.
The New York Times reported that the companies that signed agreements with the DoD agreed to allow the department to use their technologies for "all lawful purposes."
Meanwhile, the DoD said it will treat Anthropic's security-focused AI, Claude Mythos, separately from the company's designation as a supply chain risk.
Emil Michael, the DoD's Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, appeared on CNBC and said that while "Anthropic remains a supply chain risk company," the Mythos issue, which is being handled government-wide rather than solely within the DoD, is "a separate national security matter."
He added, "Because Mythos has specialized capabilities for identifying and blocking cyber vulnerabilities, we need to use it to further strengthen our networks."

cafe9@fnnews.com Lee Goo-soon Reporter