US military to be an 'AI-first' fighting force as Pentagon signs deal with seven tech giants
The Pentagon has said that AI technology would now be used for any "lawful operational use"
The Pentagon has agreed to new and expanded contracts with technology's biggest names as the US military plans to further its use of artificial intelligence (AI).
Listen to this article
Agreements have been signed with seven tech giants - Google, OpenAI, Amazon, Microsoft, SpaceX, Oracle, and Nvidia - as well an eighth in the tech start-up, Reflection.
In a statement, the Pentagon said that AI technology would now be used for any "lawful operational use".
"These agreements accelerate the transformation [of] the US military as an AI-first fighting force," it added.
The Pentagon said its decision to partner with multiple AI companies aims to avoid being too reliant on any one organisation for its technology.
"Access to a diverse suite of AI capabilities from across the resilient American technology stack will give warfighters the tools they need to act with confidence and safeguard the nation against any threat."
Notably, Anthropic has been missed in the tech lineup, after the company previously said it was concerned about how the Pentagon could use its tools, both domestically and in warfare.
Read more: Keir Starmer's niece to stand in Labour 'safe seat' at local elections
The company was the first AI organisation to be used on classified work, but are currently suing the government over the alleged retaliation after it refused to include including the "any lawful use" standard in its contract with the Defense Department.
The breakdown followed comments from Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei earlier this year, who stressed fears that powerful AI could be used by defence agencies for mass domestic surveillance - or even to deploy fully autonomous weapons of war.
Despite this, many of Anthropic's tools, including a version of its Claude chatbot, are still currently in use in many US government and defence agencies.
Anthropic's legal challenge to the ruling is expected to go to court in September.
The Pentagon has praised the use of AI across their workforce so far, alleging that more than a million people across the defence department had used the military's AI platform since it was launched last year.
The US Department of Defence is budgeting tens of billions of dollars for cutting edge programs related to intelligence, drone warfare, and classified and unclassified information networks, and has requested $54bn for the development of autonomous weapons alone.
Last month's bust-up between Anthropic and the government seems to have given other AI companies the chance to work with the government and military.
OpenAI was the first to secure a new deal as cracks began to form with Anthropic, signing with the government back in February.
A spokesman said this latest announcement was simply a formalisation of that deal.
Google's Gemini is reportedly also already in use by some parts of the government, but this will be the first time it will be used on classified government information.
SpaceX, now the parent company of xAI, operates the controversial AI chatbot Grok, but is considered less advanced in comparison to its competitions.
Nvidia's open-source AI model Nemotron, and the startup Reflection's open-source Reflection 70B, will also be used by the government - although Nvidia is not providing any hardware as part of the deal.
Microsoft, AWS and Oracle have already provided purpose-built cloud services to the government work for years.
Beyond this, how each individual company’s technology would be deployed was not specified.
LBC has reached out to all eight companies for comment.
AWS Spokesperson Tim Barrett told LBC: "For more than a decade, AWS has been committed to supporting our nation's military and ensuring that our warfighters and defense partners have access to the best technology at the best value.
"We look forward to continuing to support the Department of War's modernization efforts, building AI solutions that help them accomplish their critical missions."