Generative artificial intelligence (A.I.) has been on an unstoppable rise for the last few years, and now it is beginning to shape large-scale politics.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT release in late 2022 has fundamentally altered the digital technology sphere, with every company within the last four years racing to either become the bleeding-edge A.I. manufacturer or the quickest to adopt it into its workspace. The Pentagon has recently proven to be the latter.
Over the last month or so, the Pentagon has been in a heated standoff with Anthropic, an A.I. safety and research company known for its A.I. chatbot Claude. Anthropic’s resources are deeply ingrained inside the U.S. Defense Department due to an agreement the two reached last year to integrate Defense Department systems with technology from Palantir, a data analytics company with ties to Anthropic.
According to anonymous sources that spoke with The New York Times, Anthropic’s technology is being utilized in the United States’ growing war against Iran.
Recently, Anthropic has been stating its hesitation in its resources being used by the Department of War in regard to the mass surveillance of Americans and being used alongside autonomous weapons.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took to X on Feb. 27 to officially declare Anthropic a “Supply-Chain Risk to National Security,” severing ties with the company.
Hours after this announcement, OpenAI announced that it would be taking Anthropic’s place, allowing the Pentagon to use its A.I. systems for any lawful purpose.
Other A.I. companies have been utilizing the technology to capitalize on politics as well, with multiple startups being made utilizing A.I. to research election donor info to shape the public perception of political candidates.
One such company is DonorAtlas, which uses A.I. to research possible donors for any type of fundraising, including political candidates.
Another is Legalslaide, which is an A.I.-powered research tool built for local government officials to reduce time spent on the legislative process. On its website, it claims to be officially endorsed by the Department of War and the United States Air Force.
A.I. has slowly been finding its way into ongoing political discussions, as seen through Alex Bores, a Manhattan assemblyman currently running to replace Jerrold Nadler’s seat in Congress. Bores is one of the first politicians to focus a political campaign on A.I., focusing on its dangers for the American people if its power goes unchecked. Bores also has a background in software engineering.
A.I. and its rapid growth have been directly impacting Americans in other ways as well, with data centers being one of the most egregious.
There has been a large uptick in the number of data centers being built, and the resources that they need to draw to power these A.I. systems. This has led to communities losing access to clean water due to it being used to cool data center supercomputers, spikes in energy bills due to the load that these centers put on local electrical infrastructure, and the noise pollution that these centers produce, causing towns to never experience a moment’s peace.
A.I., so far, has thrived due to a lack of true regulation and its possible range of applications. Due to this lack of guardrails, the U.S. government has the opportunity to enter a new age of control over the American people, an age where technology watches over all.
