During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Department of Defense's FY2027 budget, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made headlines by calling Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei an "ideological lunatic." The remark came during a discussion of the DoD's ongoing dispute with Anthropic over the company's terms of service. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada) had asked about the DoD's dispute with Anthropic and whether the department could guarantee a human in the loop for AI targeting decisions. However, Hegseth used the opportunity to focus heavily on Amodei personally and Anthropic's refusal to accept the DoD's terms of service, rather than addressing the substantive policy questions. The exchange highlighted the growing tension between the military establishment and AI companies over the deployment of AI systems in defense applications, particularly regarding autonomous targeting and the role of human oversight.
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