Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War • Hacker News Board

Re: Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War

#951

Post by apolloartemis » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 6:00 PM UTC

Within the Washington Post article cited below is the following policy statement from the Trump Administration’s DoD/DoW.

    “It remains the Department’s policy that there is a human in the loop on all decisions on whether to employ nuclear weapons,” a senior defense official said. “There is no policy under consideration to put this decision in the hands of AI.”

This indicates the Administration’s support for and compliance with existing US law. (Section 1638 of the FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act). https://agora.eto.tech/instrument/1740

Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/02/27/anthrop...

Re: Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War

#952

Post by ImPostingOnHN » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 6:03 PM UTC

discopicante wrote: post #770

u1hcw9nx wrote: post #729

Google, OpenAI Employees Voice Support for Anthropic in Open Letter. We Will Not Be Divided https://notdivided.org/ ----- The Department of War is threatening to - Invoke the Defense Production Act to force Anthropic to serve their model to the military and "tailor its model to the military's needs" - Label the company a "supply chain risk" All in retaliation for Anthropic sticking to their red lines to not allow the…

For the signatories attributing their names and titles, that should be respected to put your reputation on the line. It means something. As for the others who are signing 'anonymous', this is meaningless. Either sign or don't. I would suggest removing that as an option.

they could sign it with their blind username, which is verified by company email

Re: Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War

#953

Post by ImPostingOnHN » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 6:03 PM UTC

aidis9136264 wrote: post #486

qaid wrote: post #62

I was reading halfway thru and one line struck a nerve with me: > But today, frontier AI systems are simply not reliable enough to power fully autonomous weapons. So not today, but the door is open for this after AI systems have gathered enough "training data"? Then I re-read the previous paragraph and realized it's specifically only criticizing > AI-driven domestic mass surveillance And neither denounces partially a…

Enemies will have AI powered weapons. We need to be at the cutting edge of capability.

US-controlled, AI-powered, fully-autonomous killbots are more likely to be used sooner against US civilians before any sort of invading enemy.

Are you prepared to be the "enemy" of these soulless killbots? Do you personally have AI powered-weapons? You need to be at the cutting edge of capability, right?

Re: Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War

#954

Post by personjerry » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 6:07 PM UTC

whstl wrote: post #700

lebovic wrote: post #202

I used to work at Anthropic, and I wrote a comment on a thread earlier this week about the RSP update [1]. It's enheartening to see that leaders at Anthropic are willing to risk losing their seat at the table to be guided by values. Something I don't think is well understood on HN is how driven by ideals many folks at Anthropic are, even if the company is pragmatic about achieving their goals. I have strong signal th…

> Something I don't think is well understood on HN is how driven by ideals many folks at Anthropic are After 20 years of everyone in this industry saying "we want to make the world a better place" and doing the opposite, the problem here is not really related to people's "understanding". And before the default answer kicks in: this is not cynicism. Plenty of folks here on HN and elsewhere legitimately believe that it…

At some point I've wondered if "fiduciary duty", when pushed to highest corporate levels, always conflicts with "make the world a better place"

i.e. Fiduciary Duty Considered Harmful

Re: Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War

#955

Post by aichen_dev » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 6:11 PM UTC

[dead]

Re: Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War

#956

Post by perfmode » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 6:18 PM UTC

> I believe deeply in the existential importance of using AI to defend the United States and other democracies, and to defeat our autocratic adversaries.

Ugh.

Re: Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War

#957

Post by ben5 » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 6:21 PM UTC

I like Anthropic. They seem to be very aware of the practicality of needing money vs. being idealistic, and try to maintain both where it's possible.

Re: Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War

#958

Post by 5o1ecist » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 6:23 PM UTC

whstl wrote: post #700

lebovic wrote: post #202

I used to work at Anthropic, and I wrote a comment on a thread earlier this week about the RSP update [1]. It's enheartening to see that leaders at Anthropic are willing to risk losing their seat at the table to be guided by values. Something I don't think is well understood on HN is how driven by ideals many folks at Anthropic are, even if the company is pragmatic about achieving their goals. I have strong signal th…

> Something I don't think is well understood on HN is how driven by ideals many folks at Anthropic are After 20 years of everyone in this industry saying "we want to make the world a better place" and doing the opposite, the problem here is not really related to people's "understanding". And before the default answer kicks in: this is not cynicism. Plenty of folks here on HN and elsewhere legitimately believe that it…

[flagged]

Re: Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War

#959

Post by mrguyorama » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 6:27 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #734

eric-burel wrote: post #730

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They love their dictator until it backfires, that's a quite old story.

Google employees were generally pretty anti-Trump, it's the senior leadership and the recommendation algorithms that are pro-Trump.

Nobody cares what the employees of a company think because capitalism doesn't care.

It's meaningless to talk about what the employees think or care about. They are selling their labor and value to the corporation that is legally entitled to outspend all of them to get whatever it wants.

Re: Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War

#960

Post by cgh » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 6:29 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #882

lebovic wrote: post #202

I used to work at Anthropic, and I wrote a comment on a thread earlier this week about the RSP update [1]. It's enheartening to see that leaders at Anthropic are willing to risk losing their seat at the table to be guided by values. Something I don't think is well understood on HN is how driven by ideals many folks at Anthropic are, even if the company is pragmatic about achieving their goals. I have strong signal th…

> leaders at Anthropic are willing to risk losing their seat at the table Hot take: Dario isn’t risking that much. Hegseth being Hegseth, he overplayed his hand. Dario is calling his bluff. Contract terminations are temporary. Possibly only until November. Probably only until 2028 unless the political tide shifts. Meanwhile, invoking the Defense Production Act to seize Anthropic’s IP basically triggers MAD across Ame…

Not a hot take at all. Probably the best take in this thread.