Tech’s ethical limits

The stan-doff between Anthropic and the US government has largely been framed as a principled fight over artificial intelligence (AI) safety and ethics. In important respects, that framing holds. Anthropic’s refusal to dilute safeguards against domestic mass surveillance and fully autonomous lethal use marks a rare effort by a major technology firm to impose limits on state power—even at commercial cost. At a time when most large technology providers prefer accommodation over confrontation, that stance warrants recognition.