DOD expands its classified AI work with 8 companies

Eight U.S. technology companies have signed formal agreements to deploy their frontier AI capabilities on the Defense Department’s classified networks “for lawful operational use,” according to a Pentagon press release published Friday. DOD’s new deals with SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Reflection, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Oracle follow a major contract dispute between the department and Anthropic that culminated earlier this year over potential ethical constraints that accompany the use of AI in warfare and for national surveillance. “Integrating secure frontier AI capabilities into the Department’s Impact Level 6 (IL6) and Impact Level 7 (IL7) network environments will streamline data synthesis, elevate situational understanding, and augment warfighter decision-making in complex operational environments,” officials wrote in Friday’s press release.

A bipartisan congressional push to codify a National Science Foundation-based artificial intelligence research enabler continued this week with the reintroduction in the Senate of the CREATE AI Act. The bill from Sens. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Todd Young, R-Ind., Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., would establish the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) that would give AI researchers, educators and students more access to tools, data and other information to help develop new systems. Heinrich, founder and co-chair of the Senate AI Caucus, said in a press release that the NAIRR would go a long way toward “democratizing access to AI,” ensuring that American workers are prepared for the future and primed to lead “rapid advancements” with the emerging technology that boost the U.S. economy.

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