AI policy's new power center

The Pentagon is turning procurement into policy, staking its claim as Washington's most powerful AI player with its decision to ditch Anthropic. The Defense Department is the federal government's biggest tech buyer, and its requirements for companies to win contracts can become de facto rules and spread beyond military systems. In a regulatory vacuum, defense contracts speak the loudest. The Trump administration has touted an anti-regulation, pro-AI innovation stance. But it has still regulated AI, just in a different way, former Office of Science and Technology Policy chief Alondra Nelson writes in Science. That includes, per Nelson, "intensive state intervention operating through industrial policy, trade restrictions, immigration controls, equity stakes in private firms (selected by the state), the redirection of research funding, and the strategic preemption of state authority." The Pentagon's power play is rare, rests on questionable legal ground and could have regulatory implications beyond one company. Its designation of Anthropic as a "supply chain risk," which means companies must stop using Claude in cases directly tied to the department, is usually reserved for foreign adversaries. Anthropic is suing on the grounds that the Pentagon is violating its free speech rights and lacks congressional authority.