US Department of Defense CTO Emil Michael recently addressed concerns regarding AI safety, dismissing apocalyptic predictions as a fear of change. He argued that potential risks associated with AI can be mitigated through market mechanisms, industry collaboration, and government cooperation.
The comments follow a viral post by former Anthropic engineer Jacob Coxon, which warned that AI could destroy humanity by the end of the decade. Coxon, a Cambridge mathematics graduate and former contributor to GPT-4o, previously worked at both OpenAI and Anthropic.
The Pentagon remains in a legal dispute with Anthropic over the use of its models. The conflict began when Anthropic sought to restrict the military from using its AI for mass surveillance or fully autonomous lethal weapons, leading the Department of Defense to classify the company as a supply chain risk.
The legal battle is currently split between courts in California and Washington D.C. While a California judge ruled in favor of Anthropic on August 27, Michael emphasized that the Washington case remains pending. Until a final verdict is reached in Washington, the Pentagon maintains its supply chain risk designation against the firm.
