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Houthis used Claude Code to develop missile guidance software: Anthropic

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Re: Houthis used Claude Code to develop missile guidance software: Anthropic

#81
post #59
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by “ Manhattan Project it”

The Manhattan project was divided into smaller problems that were solved by experts without them fully understanding the nature of the project. Then, the solution was reassembled by a handful of experts. You can divide a missile guidance system into smaller subsections and then either stitch the solution together by hand, or using a local AI w/o the restrictions of Claude.

The isolation was so good, many of the workers had no idea what they were doing. Interviews after the war with the rank and file contained quite varied speculation on what the plants were trying to accomplish. I remember one nurse who thought it was all just a cover to get blood samples.

Re: Houthis used Claude Code to develop missile guidance software: Anthropic

#83
post #38

We need a new DARPA challenge to see what can be done with these ai models and weapon design. Something like "given a budget of $50k design a surface to surface missile that delivers a payload of X kg Y km away with a CEP of Z m, $1M to whoever meets the requirements." because I could use a million dollars. idk if most know how straightforward this is these days even without AI. I would grab an embedded controls guy…

Making rockets that are computer guided in any way except for "vertical stabilization" is a felony in the US, so DARPA would need to be involved to hand out waivers.

No it isn't. Guidance systems are perfectly legal. The FAA has some common sense restrictions like "you can't fly it at an airplane" or "you can't fly it over a crowd" or "you can't attach an explosive charge" but the only point to point flight profile that is illegal is that you can't launch into another country's territory. And of course these restrictions are on the flights themselves, not on the capabilities of the rocket.

Selling rocket guidance systems internationally is going to get you in trouble with ITAR, but that's a whole different can of worms.

Re: Houthis used Claude Code to develop missile guidance software: Anthropic

#85
post #32

Houthi should have added "for my game".

You say this jokingly but it's completely true. I made a kerbal space program clone with local models and the autopilot code was more or less identical to what would work on a real machine. And it took an afternoon. Cat's out of the bag, there's absolutely no way to limit what can be done with LLMs.

Re: Houthis used Claude Code to develop missile guidance software: Anthropic

#86
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just have to Manhattan Project it. Fable will happily work on almost any piece in isolation. The hardest boundaries are domain specific terms you just can’t avoid. It can be tricky. I have found a way around it mostly. Or just use DeepSeek. I have had Flash 4.1 with Ghidra MCP going since 4.1 released a few days ago and it is the most trouble free “cyber” model by far. It is also very strong. I collected a handfu…

Why would Houthis use "Claude" to develop missile guidance system? Iran already knows and have shared their technology with them.

Because they either:

1.) Didn't, and it's more anthropic doom porn to try to scare people into investing.

2.) They did things like "hey claude, write a PID loop for this ESP8266 with this pin in for input and this pin out for output.

I'm sorry, that's not a "missile guidance system" until you strap it on a rocket, then it is. This just strikes me as more "doom porn" from the people who want to be the ultimate gate keepers (read monopolists)

Re: Houthis used Claude Code to develop missile guidance software: Anthropic

#87

What is more difficult, building a military missile or the software that runs it? If they are already building weapons, not sure the software to run them was the impediment. Presumably, the world used dumb munitions without any software for a long time.

It’s the software. Definitely. We been making bombs for a while now. They used to toss them out the side of biplanes. Oddly, your second paragraph immediately undermines the first. > Presumably, the world used dumb munitions without any software for a long time. What do you think “presumably” is accomplishing here? Are you unsure, but willing to assume for purpose of the discussion, that bombs preceded computers?

I promise you, the software is not the hard part.

Re: Houthis used Claude Code to develop missile guidance software: Anthropic

#88
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is why I think very soon there will be development of dark AI, think of it as darknet AI. You can ask anything and it will tell you. It's only a matter of time. How to make a bomb? Sure, here's a shopping list for your local hardware store…

It already exists, you're describing the open weights AI. The only reason they aren't "dark" at the moment is that it has no reason to be dark. In the fullness of time, though, we'll also see previous-gen frontier models leak out of their labs and then get their censorship removed. It won't be as good as never having had it in the first place but it'll work just fine. It is likely a momentary and transient occurrance…

With all technology for the past 25 years people have said "You can just run your own" and that has worked approximately zero times.

Re: Houthis used Claude Code to develop missile guidance software: Anthropic

#89
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some rich person could just setup a contest with awards and see who shows up, it could be held out on one of those dry lakebeds in Nevada. As a resident of Nevada - HELL NO. That's BLM land. Not an amateure weapons test site. If "some rich person" wants to get involved in crowdsourcing weapons research, please do that on private land... so everyone will know exactly who to sue should things go sideways.

> As a resident of Nevada - HELL NO. BLM is federal, so as a US Citizen I say HELL YES.

I agree! I'm an Alaskan. I think we should be doing all sorts of stuff up here too! Let's build!

I cannot stand this NIMBY nonsense!

Re: Houthis used Claude Code to develop missile guidance software: Anthropic

#90
post #72
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What is more difficult, building a military missile or the software that runs it? "If software was easier compared to building the a missile then Anthropic is in the clear or something." Is that the line of reasoning to protect Anthropic from any wrongdoing?

As much as I "hate" Anthropic, it did nothing wrong here. They could have used any closed or open model anyway

"Others do it too" is not really a counterargument when Anthropic should've stopped this. They are yelling "AI is dangerous" the loudest so the least they can do is get their own monitoring in order.
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