Statement on the comments from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth • Hacker News Board

Re: Statement on the comments from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth

#301

Post by ragall » Sat, Feb 28, 2026, 6:34 AM UTC

zephen wrote: post #170

arjie wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a pretty classic mistake most people who are in high-profile companies make. They think that some degree of appealing to people who were their erstwhile opponents will win them allies. But modern popular ethics are the Grim Trigger and the Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics. You cannot pass the purity test. One might even speculate that passing the purity test wouldn't do anything to get you acceptance. Pers…

Your contention that Trump's administration is big tent is risible. Political witch hunts, women and minorities forced out of the military, and kicking out all the allied countries that used to be in the tent with us? Bullshit of the finest caliber.

Yes, the Trump administration is big tent of politicians who hold incompatible opinions and are allowed to stay as long as they display personal allegiance to Trump.

Re: Statement on the comments from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth

#302

Post by Maxious » Sat, Feb 28, 2026, 6:34 AM UTC

ok_dad wrote: post #37

Don't worry, OpenAI will kneel for the king: > Sam Altman told OpenAI employees at an all-hands meeting on Friday afternoon that a potential agreement is emerging with the U.S. Department of War to use the startup’s AI models and tools, according to a source present at the meeting and a summary of the meeting seen by Fortune. The contract has not yet been signed. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47188698 Fuck thi…

The OpenAI contract was signed once Anthropic failed to yield before the deadline https://x.com/sama/status/2027578652477821175

Re: Statement on the comments from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth

#303

Post by eaglelamp » Sat, Feb 28, 2026, 6:35 AM UTC

Anthropic knew they were going to lose this contract to OpenAI, and this is an attempt to salvage publicity from the loss.

This administration is comfortable with blatantly picking winners and OpenAI is better connected with the admin than Anthropic.

Re: Statement on the comments from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth

#304

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Feb 28, 2026, 6:36 AM UTC

ilaksh wrote: post #289

dmix wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not just admirable it’s the obvious position to take and any alternative is head scratching. It’s clear that this is mostly a glorified loyalty test over a practical ask by the administration. Strangely reminiscent of Soviet or Chinese policies where being agreeable to authority was more important than providing value to the state.

My interpretation is that this is what happens when you make a Fox News host Secretary of Defense. I think he is just too dumb to figure out a way to "finesse" the situation so the NSA etc. can use it however they want, or at least to know that it's politically intractable to make it a public fight.

[deleted]

Re: Statement on the comments from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth

#305

Post by moogly » Sat, Feb 28, 2026, 6:37 AM UTC

arjie wrote: post #115

lebovic wrote: post #94

I used to work at Anthropic, and I wrote a comment on a thread earlier this week about Anthropic's first response and the RSP update [1][2]. I think many people on HN have a cynical reaction to Anthropic's actions due to of their own lived experiences with tech companies. Sometimes, that holds: my part of the company looked like Meta or Stripe, and it's hard not to regress to the mean as you scale. But not every patt…

This is a pretty classic mistake most people who are in high-profile companies make. They think that some degree of appealing to people who were their erstwhile opponents will win them allies. But modern popular ethics are the Grim Trigger and the Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics. You cannot pass the purity test. One might even speculate that passing the purity test wouldn't do anything to get you acceptance. Pers…

> he can get Zohran Mamdani in the room and say "it's fine; say you think I'm a fascist" and then nonetheless get what he wants.

Is your perception that warped? Mamdani is the one who knows how to play Trump as a fiddle, and the one who walks away with something from the exchange.

Re: Statement on the comments from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth

#306

Post by tw04 » Sat, Feb 28, 2026, 6:41 AM UTC

I just want to point out how 1984 fascist dictatorship it still feels to call it “the department of war”. That’s not normal. None of this is normal.

Re: Statement on the comments from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth

#307

Post by Tepix » Sat, Feb 28, 2026, 6:47 AM UTC

layer8 wrote: post #291

Stratoscope wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...the financial fallout from losing the government contracts will pale in comparison to the goodwill from consumers. In fact, a friend heard about this and immediately signed up for a $200/year Claude Pro plan. This is someone who has been only a very occasional user of ChatGPT and never used Claude before. I told my friend "You could just sign up for the free plan and upgrade after you try it out." "No, I want to…

Still, you’d need a million people to do that to compensate the $200M military contract.

Does the military pay $200m per month?

Re: Statement on the comments from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth

#308

Post by ParentiSoundSys » Sat, Feb 28, 2026, 6:49 AM UTC

remarkEon wrote: post #207

ParentiSoundSys wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying that we should consider the Chinese government to be an existential threat and menace to world peace on the same level as Nazi Germany? What if the side that did Operation Paperclip and is currently champing at the bit to impose Total Surveillance on its own citizenry maybe isn't The Good Guys?

There is no evidence that this was a condition of the deal for working with the government on this. PRC already is a Total Surveillance state. The claim made by Anthropic is very specific, and it's that they feel that the law has not caught up to how AI can be used to aggregate very large amounts of data that can be obtained without a warrant through data brokers. The government already does this . Maybe you agree wi…

Okay but then why is that also seemingly a red line must have for the Department of War? Isn't it just a tool of domestic surveillance and counterinsurgency for them? Seems like a distraction from any real U.S. national security objectives.

Re: Statement on the comments from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth

#309

Post by layer8 » Sat, Feb 28, 2026, 6:50 AM UTC

Tepix wrote: post #307

layer8 wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still, you’d need a million people to do that to compensate the $200M military contract.

Does the military pay $200m per month?

As the parent stated, the Claude Pro plan is $200 per year, not per month.

Re: Statement on the comments from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth

#310

Post by Smaug123 » Sat, Feb 28, 2026, 6:51 AM UTC

koshergweilo wrote: post #261

ndgold wrote: post #71

Claude’s constitution is proving too resilient for unsanctioned uses, and that is a great sign for Anthropic’s blueprint for socially beneficent agents.

It's kind of sad how an AI Startup defers more to its constitution than the actual government

The word "Constitution" refers to the document listing the principles on which Claude is trained. It's not clear to me that Anthropic can defer to it - it is phrased throughout as a description of how Claude behaves, not as a description of how Anthropic or any other entity behaves. Can you be more precise about what you mean?