To the editor: I experienced a visceral reaction to Anita Chabria’s recent column (“The Pentagon is demanding to use Claude AI as it pleases. Claude told me that’s ‘dangerous,’” Feb. 26). It appears the U.S. has taken yet another page out of Joseph Stalin’s playbook on the road to dictatorship, but now with far more sophistication with the help of artificial intelligence.
The key factor in the fall of the Romanov dynasty to the Bolsheviks was that angry minority group’s recognition of the quintessential value of timing and chaos. Especially in that 1917 year, their carefully orchestrated communication among railroads and telegraph systems was swift and coordinated.
AI systems today (like Claude) appear to be the ultimate tool in controlling today’s chaos and communication. Stalin didn’t have AI, but he did have his own low-tech versions of surveillance: spies, the KGB, gulags, intimidation techniques, etc. And the U.S. does too: masked ICE agents, detention centers, tear gas.
The American people, if not our legislatures, must ensure that we have rules and regulations that control the unbridled use of this powerful tool by the powerful individuals.
Darlene Pienta, San Marcos
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To the editor: What should Anthropic do now? Go to Europe (or Canada) where it could operate more successfully, free of the heavy and puerile impositions of President Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Here’s a company that prides itself on the ethical use of its products being coerced into betraying that pride by our government (“Trump orders federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s AI after clash with Pentagon,” Feb. 27). What does this say about the ethical character of that same government?
Ken Johnson, Santa Barbara
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To the editor: If all technology companies join Anthropic and say that their products cannot be used for mass surveillance against Americans or in fully autonomous weapons operations, then Trump will have no choice but to rescind his order for U.S. government agencies to stop using Anthropic’s technology.
Richie Locasso, Hemet
