From Safety First to Military First: The Transformation of AI Ethics in Defense Technology
In a move that starkly illustrates the growing disconnect between stated AI ethics and practical implementation, two industry leaders have made significant military pivots: Meta and Scale AI have announced Defense Llama, a military-focused variant of the Llama 3 model, while Anthropic has partnered with Palantir and AWS for military intelligence applications. These developments come mere days after Meta publicly condemned “unauthorized” military applications of their models by Chinese researchers, and following Anthropic’s long-standing positioning as a leader in AI safety. The parallel shifts highlight a troubling double standard in AI ethics and underscore a broader industry transformation. This report examines the implications of this selective enforcement and rapid commercialization of military AI, set against the backdrop of Geoffrey Hinton’s urgent warnings about unchecked military AI development and the broader global race for military AI supremacy.
