Anthropic · Fortune Technology
The relationship between AI companies and the American defense establishment burst into the open earlier this year when Anthropic caught
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But behind the scenes, an equally important if less dramatic AI struggle is playing out—as U.S. defense and intelligence agencies try to leverage the technology without sacrificing their need for secrecy.
Key facts
- While Chaillan says new government subscriptions have leveled off since January, 14,000 teams across 27 U.S. government agencies remain subscribed to Ask Sage
- It’s probably a $2 billion market right now,” says Nicolas Chaillan, founder of an AI platform called Ask Sage that’s used by thousands of teams across the Department of Defense
- There’s probably, I don’t know, a hundred people, 200 people who deeply care about this question inside the intelligence community,” says Emily Harding, a former CIA analyst who now researches
- But this arrangement was made possible by a 2024 deal with two other firms that provided the necessary infrastructure—Palantir and Amazon Web Services (AWS)—which operated the secure software
Summary
The relationship between AI companies and the American defense establishment burst into the open earlier this year when Anthropic found itself in a nasty public fight with the Pentagon. “It’s probably a $2 billion market right now,” says Nicolas Chaillan, founder of an AI platform called Ask Sage that’s used by thousands of teams across the Department of Defense. These AI infrastructure companies receive less media attention for their government work than bigger peers like Google, xAI, OpenAI, and of course Anthropic. “There’s probably, I don’t know, a hundred people, 200 people who deeply care about this question inside the intelligence community,” says Emily Harding, a former CIA analyst who now researches defense tech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.