The alignment problem and control

The New Yorker staff writer Gideon Lewis-Kraus joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the escalating standoff between the A.I. company Anthropic and the Department of War. They consider recent reporting on the use of Claude—Anthropic’s family of large language models—in military operations in Venezuela and Iran, and how that news has pushed the company’s relationship with the Pentagon to a breaking point. They also explore how the tech industry is responding to the conflict between the Trump Administration and Anthropic, and the thorny question of whether A.I. should be subject to greater safeguards and more oversight than previous technological innovations.

This week’s reading:

• “The Pentagon Went to War with Anthropic. What’s Really at Stake?,” by Gideon Lewis-Kraus
• “Israel’s Gulf-State Gamble in the Iran War,” by Ruth Margalit
• “The Iran War Is Another Reason to Quit Oil,” by Bill McKibben
• “Trump’s Mass-Detention Campaign,” by Jonathan Blitzer
• “How Should We Remember the Hippies?,” by Jay Caspian Kang

The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. 

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