Beware the Rise of the ‘Pentagon-Silicon Complex’ – gizmodo.com

Beware the Rise of the ‘Pentagon-Silicon Complex’  gizmodo.com

Defense startups like Palantir, Anduril, and SpaceX own the technology they're building for the U.S. military. What happens if they decide their interests no longer align with those of the United States'? All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Gizmodo may earn an affiliate commission. Last week, a federal court upheld the Trump administration’s designation of Anthropic as a “supply chain risk,” a scarlet letter that would effectively label the company a national security threat. It was a major win for the federal government in its long-running dispute with the AI startup, which earlier this year said it would not allow the Pentagon to use its technology for domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons systems.

The legal battle—which has yet to be settled in court—comes down to a single question: Who should have the final say over how American-made technology gets used by the military? And by extension, who has the power to shape American national security interests? Historically, that power rested solely and unambiguously in the hands of the federal government. Today things are much murkier—and much more dangerous, according to the author and longtime national defense journalist Sharon Weinberger, author of the new book, Valley of Death. “This idea that a private company should dictate