Yesterday (June 16th, 2025), Reuters announced that OpenAI was awarded a million dollars contract to provide AI tools to the U.S. Defense Department.

Reuters reports: “Under this award, the performer will develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains,” the Pentagon said.

So, let me make sure I understand this. One of the most powerful military in the world is going to hand control of its critical national security to a tech company which systems routinely hallucinate, distort or make up basic facts, all this not because of a lack of data, but because of an essential deficiency in their ability to understand the REAL world? 😳🙄🙄

This is going to be interesting. Welcome to “The Greatest Show On Earth” by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus!

This is what leading GenAI critic Gary Markus tells us about AI in his 2023 TED talk.

Gary Markus TED Talk 2023

A bit old, 2023, but still totally relevant two years later. Two years is a millenium in tech time, and the fact that what he says is still relevant shows that no progress has been made on the most crucial claims about LLMs.

👆 from Markus’ TED talk above. The imagination boggles at the recipes OpenAI could concoct when in control of the US national security narrative.

By the way, watch the Q&A with TED Chris Anderson at the end of Markus’ TED talk.

With the possibility of government-led regulation becoming more remote due to the geo-political and military strategic importance of digital tech, a global, non-profit organisation to regulate tech may be increasingly needed. Or increasingly utopian. Or most probably both.