Among other consequences, if Anthropic ends up being killed it’s going to be just another nail in the coffin of trust in America.
Companies who subscribed will find themselves without an important tool because the president went on a rant, and might wonder if it’s safe to depend on other American companies.
It is absolutely unsafe to depend upon American companies, and I can guarantee you that all over the world, people are actively looking for alternatives already. You never know what happens next, things that used to take years happen in a single Truth Social post now, and no matter how twisted your worst nightmare scenarios look, this ridiculous band of crooks in charge of the USA manages to one-up them.
When you put it like that, it makes me almost want to wish for Anthropic to die from this. But the blow to the field in general would be huge, and I benefit from their service as well.
Unfortunately, every country has a law somewhere saying it can take private property at will if it is in the national interest.
It's not only the US being special in this case.
The problem is pretty simple: there is money to be made and someone will do what the Pentagon wants. Will it be worse in capabilities than Anthropic? Probably, but as long as it can be used to wage autonomous war wherever the US military decides, it will be good enough.
Anthropic can stick to their beliefs as much as they want, but it will not change the outcome, maybe just postpone it a bit.
On an unrelated note, I think the Pentagon erred when it labeled them a supply chain vulnerability, they should have used the DPA to make them do what they need. Less drama and much cheaper compared to replacing them with a whole different company.
Anthropic will just move out of the US. A lot of scientists fled Nazi Germany in the early stages. A lot of them fled to USA and end up being part of the Manhattan project that gave the Abomb that helped US win and end the war. We are going to bleed a lot of AI researches and engineers.
USA can’t just deny the ability to leave if you are deemed to be important for national security?
But they could open up a branch in EU with some people (and their money), and then step by step employ the people from the US in EU, bleeding out the US entity on a long run: At least yet, no one can stop their top scientist to move to another country with the knowledge and just pick up their work in the new conutry.
>At least yet, no one can stop their top scientist to move to another country with the knowledge and just pick up their work in the new conutry.
They can and do do this routinely. Many individuals get marked and regularly go through additional screening if their travel plans raise flags. This isn't even unique to the US... most Western nations do the same. If there is a serious brain drain risk, the US government can easily go all out and have the whole company put on the no-fly list.
>At least yet, no one can stop their top scientist to move to another country
Let's hope so, because I am not so certain.
Oh come on. Saying “no” is not eroding trust, it’s taking a stand.
When the US banded human embryo research did that erode trust? I didn’t hear anything about that at the time.
Don't you know enforcing whats best for your citizens clearly erodes trust? Just keep selling off your future for short term gains! Anything else is heckin problematic :(