American Prestige Bonus - AI Targeting in Modern War w/ Sam Biddle (Preview)
Mar 22, 2026
Sam Biddle, technology journalist known for investigative reporting on surveillance, AI, and defense. He discusses how AI and LLMs are being used to select and prioritize targets, tools like Palantir’s Maven and Claude speeding airstrike decisions, risks from stale or misinterpreted intelligence, and how human review and policy guardrails may be bypassed.
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Palantir Maven Puts LLMs Atop Fused Battlefield Data
- The DOD uses Palantir's Maven Smart System to fuse drone, satellite, and intelligence feeds and layer an LLM on top to prioritize targets.
- Sam Biddle says this setup can turn Claude into a tool that effectively suggests what to bomb first, accelerating targeting decisions.
Claude Used To Speed Airstrike Planning
- Anthropic's Claude is reportedly being used to speed up airstrike planning by suggesting targets and accelerating the kill chain.
- Biddle highlights that chatbots can produce plausible-sounding targeting suggestions quickly, which is attractive for rapid strikes.
LLM Summaries Risk Recycling Outdated Intel
- LLMs are valuable to the military for summarizing vast, dated intelligence dossiers into actionable outputs.
- Biddle warns that feeding long historical reports into an LLM can produce current recommendations based on stale data, increasing risk of wrongful strikes.