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Anthropic on Thursday announced that it’s teaming up with Palantir, the data-mining firm, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide U.S. intelligence and defense agencies access to Anthropic’s Claude family of AI models.
The news comes as a growing number of AI vendors, for strategic and fiscal reasons, look to ink deals with U.S. defense customers. Meta recently revealed that it’s making its Llama models available to defense partners, while OpenAI is seeking to establish a closer relationship with Defense Department.
Anthropic head of sales Kate Earle Jensen says the company’s collaboration with Palantir and AWS will “operationalize the use of Claude” within Palantir’s platform, leveraging AWS hosting. Claude, which became available in Palantir’s platform earlier this month, can now be used in Palantir’s defense-accredited environment, Palantir Impact Level 6 (IL6), hosted on AWS infrastructure.
The Defense Department’s IL6 is reserved for systems containing data deemed critical to national security, and requiring “maximum protection” against unauthorized access and tampering. Information in IL6 systems can be up to “secret” level — one step short of top secret.
“We’re proud to be at the forefront of bringing responsible AI solutions to U.S. classified environments, enhancing analytical capabilities and operational efficiencies in vital government operations,” Jensen said. “Access to Claude within Palantir on AWS will equip U.S. defense and intelligence organizations with powerful AI tools that can rapidly process and analyze vast amounts of complex data. This will dramatically improve intelligence analysis and enable officials in their decision-making processes, streamline resource intensive tasks and boost operational efficiency across departments.”
This summer, Anthropic brought select Claude models to AWS’ GovCloud, signaling its ambitions to expand its public-sector client base. (GovCloud is AWS’ service designed for U.S. government cloud workloads.) Anthropic has positioned itself as a more safety-conscious vendor than OpenAI. But the company’s terms of service allow its AI to be used for tasks like “legally authorized foreign intelligence analysis,” “identifying covert influence or sabotage campaigns,” and “providing warning in advance of potential military activities.”
There’s certainly interest in AI among government agencies. A March 2024 analysis by the Brookings Institute found a 1,200% jump in AI-related government contracts. But certain branches, like the U.S. military, have been slow to adopt the technology — and skeptical of its ROI.
Anthropic, which recently expanded to Europe, is said to be in talks to raise a new round of funding on a valuation of up to $40 billion. To date, the company has raised about $7.6 billion, including forward commitments. By far its largest investor is Amazon.
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