‘Uncanny Valley’: Anthropic’s DOD Lawsuit, War Memes, and AI Coming for VC Jobs

This week on Uncanny Valley, our hosts look at what’s at stake for Anthropic after the company sued the Department of Defense. They also take a look at the strategy behind the Trump administration sharing action-filled war memes on social media and share a scoop about how a controversial company is taking in millions in government contracts by helping organize America250 celebrations. Plus: Could AI come for the jobs of venture capitalists?

Articles mentioned in this episode:

• Anthropic Claims Pentagon Feud Could Cost It Billions
• A Trumpworld Events Company Is Raking In Millions in Federal Contracts
• OpenAI and Google Workers File Amicus Brief in Support of Anthropic Against the US Government
• Can AI Kill the Venture Capitalist?

You can follow Brian Barrett on Bluesky at @brbarrett, Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky at @zoeschiffer, and Leah Feiger on Bluesky at @leahfeiger. Write to us at [email protected].

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Transcript

Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors.

Brian Barrett: Hey, it's Brian. Zoë, Leah, and I have really enjoyed being your new hosts these past few weeks, and we want to hear from you. If you like the show and have a minute, please leave us a review in the podcast or app of your choice. It really helps us reach more people, and for any questions and comments, you can always reach us at [email protected]. Thank you for listening. On to the show.

Zoë Schiffer: Welcome to WIRED's Uncanny Valley. I'm Zoë Schiffer, director of business and industry.

Brian Barrett: I'm Brian Barrett, executive editor.

Leah Feiger: And I'm Leah Feiger, senior politics editor.

Zoë Schiffer: This week, we're diving into Anthropic's lawsuit against the Department of Defense after the company was labeled as a supply chain risk. We're also discussing why on earth the Trump administration is sharing action film memes about the war in Iran and how a little known events company formed by some of the organizers of the January 6th rally is making bank in Trump's second term in office. Also, we'll talk about whether venture capitalists should be worried about AI taking their jobs. OK. We have a ton to get into, so let's just dive right in. The saga between Anthropic and the Department of Defense is far from over. I actually think we're going to be hearing about this for many, many months to come. On Monday, Anthropic filed a lawsuit against the DOD pushing back against the agency's decision to label the company as a supply chain risk, which is pretty detrimental to Anthropic's business. Anthropic is basically arguing that the government is infringing upon its free speech rights, saying, quote, "The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech." Now, that's the lawsuit that Anthropic filed in San Francisco, but there's another accompanying lawsuit that it filed in DC, which accuses the DOD of unfairly discriminating and retaliating against Anthropic. In the meantime, the company is also seeking a temporary restraining order to continue working with its military partners.

Brian Barrett: This continues to be just a fascinating face-off and I think really unprecedented. What's interesting about the lawsuit to me too is I think it was our first look at Anthropic acknowledging, "Yeah, this is actually going to potentially cost us hundreds of millions, maybe billion dollars because you're making it so that nobody wants to work with us." It's been a look at just how actual the impact has been in the week or two since this started.

Zoë Schiffer: Yeah. The government actually doesn't need to win the lawsuit, I don't think, for this to really impact Anthropic's business, because the company is claiming that already a bunch of its contracts that were about to close, very, very lucrative contracts, are falling apart as potential partners are saying, "Wow, we have other options and it's frankly way too risky to work with you."

Leah Feiger: No, they've made them a lightning rod. And I don't know that even in a year from now, I'm not sure that they're going to be able to get the stink of this off them. No matter how the lawsuit resolves, no matter if these contracts end up coming their way back, just because Claude happens to be better, X, Y, and Z. It doesn't matter if there are two competitive bids, Anthropic is one of them, you might as well go with the people who aren't pissing off the president right now.

Brian Barrett: And on the other end of it, you've got consumers rallying around Anthropic and saying, "This is the good one." And so their usage in terms of they're selling a lot of monthly subscriptions to your average Joe, but I don't see a world in which those make up the gap.

Zoë Schiffer: Yeah. Enterprise sales are the vast majority of Anthropic's business. And I want to say one other thing, Brian, and sorry to cut you off, but it's driving me insane because we've been talking a lot about branding and perception as this fight has gone on and how the Anthropic has come out looking really good. But I have to bring your attention to that blog post that Dario Amodei, the CEO, published that was basically where things stand with the Department of War. And he did say Department of War. He used that language all throughout. I don't think the average person looked at that and thought he's grappling, but I looked at it and was like, "Oh, no, he can't even use the proper name for the agency because he is so desperate to get back in their good graces." And I actually think he's doing a lot more of that than people think right now.

Leah Feiger: The Anthropic Chief Commercial Officer, Paul Smith, specifically said the commercial partners are concerned in backing out or hesitant to make deals. This quote stayed with me. He said, "A financial services customer paused negotiations over a $15 million deal because of the supply chain label, and two leading financial services companies have refused to close deals valued together at $80 million unless they gain the right to unilaterally cancel their contracts for any reason." I think that it's lovely that consumers might be rallying around them, but I'm not sure that any sort of subscription push is going to make up for this.

Zoë Schiffer: No. Katy Perry signing up for Claude Pro, or whatever that tier is called, is not going to save Anthropic's business.

Leah Feiger: I'm sorry. That was an unbelievable moment on social media. I love when celebrities get involved. I love when it's Katy Perry that gets involved. There's just so many different parts of that. It scratched every single itch for me.

Brian Barrett: Yeah. Of all the things that take a stand over in this moment, it is a fun, "You know what? Anthropic." I will say in terms of taking a stand too, we've seen a lot of other companies in Silicon Valley come to Anthropic's defense here. I think maybe less out of a sense of buddy-buddiedom than a sense of, "Oh, if it can happen to them, it can definitely happen to us." So we had more than 30 employees from OpenAI and Google, including Google DeepMind's Chief Scientist, Jeff Dean, filed a brief on Monday in support of Anthropic. Microsoft followed up, filed their own brief in support of Anthropic. I don't know that that's going to actually do anything in the long run, but it does signal at least that this is a fight that more than just Anthropic is willing to have.

Leah Feiger: What are the chances here that they get the Trump administration to back down, that they get DOD to back dow