Democracy Now! Audio Democracy Now! 2026-03-18 Wednesday
Mar 18, 2026
Craig Aaron, Co-CEO of Free Press defending press freedom. Josh Paul, ex-State Department official turned policy advocate on Palestine and Israel. Craig Jones, political geographer studying AI in modern warfare. They discuss AI speeding the kill chain, Project Maven and targeting risks, civilian casualty tracking and legal erosion, media threats and consolidation, and congressional tools to check war policy.
AI Snips
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Anthropic's Ethical Limits Triggered A Government Crackdown
- Anthropic tried to restrict use of its models for mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons, prompting political backlash.
- The Trump administration labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk after the firm objected, triggering a lawsuit.
Outdated Intelligence Turned A School Into A Target
- AI-assisted targeting can institutionalize stale or incorrect intelligence, turning outdated map labels into lethal errors.
- Craig Jones notes the girls' school was labeled a military compound long ago and apparently removed from no-strike lists without adequate human recheck.
Palantir Is The Interface Claude Does The Thinking
- Palantir is the user interface while Claude performs background processing and recommendations for targeteers.
- Jones describes Palantir as a platform with intelligence overlays and Claude as the AI in the background that suggests variables like munition size.