undefined | Better HN

0 pointsTelemakhos2mo ago0 comments

Governments are sovereign: they tell people what to do (by making laws, by exercising a monopoly of violence, etc), and nobody tells them what to do. Governments also fight wars, which means lives depend on the government's ability to command.

Private companies make products. When those products were plowshares or swords or missiles, the company didn't really have a say over how they were used, and could be compelled by the government to supply them. Now that new cloud and AI products that increase government command abilities live on servers controlled by private companies, private companies think they can tell government what to do and not do. No government will accept that, because the essence of government is autocratic sovereignty: the sovereign commands and is not commanded.

0 comments

7 comments · 2 top-level

Filligree2mo ago· 3 in thread

In American law, companies have the choice of whether or not to do business with the government, outside of a few corner cases. There’s a process for forcing them, but it can’t just be because the leader says so.

In this particular case Anthropic had a contract stating what the military could and could not use their models for. The military broke that contract. Anthropic declined to sign a revised one.

This is within their rights, and more to the point, the government should absolutely not be allowed to unilaterally alter contracts they’ve already signed!

Predictability is the whole point. Undermining it is how you destroy your own economy.

orochimaaru2mo ago

That is allegedly not what happened. Anthropic’s CEO was happy to grant waivers on a case by case basis.

The problem is the branches of the government that Anthropic was doing business with found it infeasible to do this.

They had another problem. If one of their contractors used Claude to engineer solutions contrary to Anthropic’s “manifesto” would Claude poison pill the code?

Basically Anthropic wanted the angels halo and the devils horns and the govt said pick one.

SpicyLemonZest2mo ago

> That is allegedly not what happened. Anthropic’s CEO was happy to grant waivers on a case by case basis. The problem is the branches of the government that Anthropic was doing business with found it infeasible to do this.

That's not what the presidential announcement blacklisting Anthropic said. It said they're being punished for trying to require that the military follow their terms of service.

1 more reply

Geezus_422mo ago

Sure, they have a "choice", except that no one turns done the kind of money the government has to offer, and if the company is public they are legally obligated to increase shareholder value.

mcmcmc2mo ago· 2 in thread

> the essence of government is autocratic sovereignty

*was

Democracy was and is radical for putting the common people in charge of the government. The right to petition for redress of grievances is literally in the first amendment. Government is a social contract, enforced with state violence on one end and mob violence on the other.

If you want to return to autocratic rule, I hear North Korea is lovely this time of year.

JackFr2mo ago

More importantly in the United States we have certain rights which cannot be abridged, even by a majority of the electorate though the government.

Geezus_422mo ago

Except the politicians just ask their rich friends to do the things they aren't allowed to do and then act like there's nothing they can do.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

7 comments · 2 top-level

Filligree2mo ago· 3 in thread

In this particular case Anthropic had a contract stating what the military could and could not use their models for. The military broke that contract. Anthropic declined to sign a revised one.

This is within their rights, and more to the point, the government should absolutely not be allowed to unilaterally alter contracts they’ve already signed!

Predictability is the whole point. Undermining it is how you destroy your own economy.

orochimaaru2mo ago

That is allegedly not what happened. Anthropic’s CEO was happy to grant waivers on a case by case basis.

The problem is the branches of the government that Anthropic was doing business with found it infeasible to do this.

They had another problem. If one of their contractors used Claude to engineer solutions contrary to Anthropic’s “manifesto” would Claude poison pill the code?

Basically Anthropic wanted the angels halo and the devils horns and the govt said pick one.

SpicyLemonZest2mo ago

That's not what the presidential announcement blacklisting Anthropic said. It said they're being punished for trying to require that the military follow their terms of service.

1 more reply

Geezus_422mo ago

Sure, they have a "choice", except that no one turns done the kind of money the government has to offer, and if the company is public they are legally obligated to increase shareholder value.

mcmcmc2mo ago· 2 in thread

> the essence of government is autocratic sovereignty

*was

If you want to return to autocratic rule, I hear North Korea is lovely this time of year.

JackFr2mo ago

More importantly in the United States we have certain rights which cannot be abridged, even by a majority of the electorate though the government.

Geezus_422mo ago

Except the politicians just ask their rich friends to do the things they aren't allowed to do and then act like there's nothing they can do.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse