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Pentagon AI chief Cameron Stanley confirmed to CNBC that the Defense Department is expanding the use of Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence model, nearly two months after the DoD removed Anthropic, designating it as a supply chain risk.
The DOD is using Google’s latest model for classified projects, a person with knowledge of the matter said on condition of anonymity because the specifics of the arrangement are not public. information first informed He Google had signed an agreement with the DoD for classified work, citing a person familiar with the matter.
In addition to Gemini, the Pentagon is also working with OpenAI and other vendors to modernize wartime capabilities, Stanley told CNBC in a video interview.
“Overdependence on one vendor is never a good thing,” he said. “We’re seeing it, especially in software.”
The DoD adopted Google amid a heated legal dispute with Anthropic. Earlier this month, a federal appeals court in Washington, DC, rejected Anthropic’s request to temporarily halt the department’s blacklisting of the AI company while a lawsuit challenging the approval was pending.
The ruling came after a judge in San Francisco, in a separate but related case, granted Anthropic a preliminary injunction that prevents the Trump administration from enforcing a ban on the use of its cloud model. With the split rulings by the two courts, Anthropic is excluded from DOD contracts but is able to continue working with other government agencies during the litigation.
A DOD spokesperson confirmed over email that the agency is not working with Anthropic at this time. President Donald Trump told CNBC last week that “it’s possible” there will be a deal allowing Anthropic’s model to be used within the DOD.
Stanley said the Pentagon and U.S. warfighters are saving time and money by using Gemini.
“There are a lot of different things that are saving thousands of man hours, literally thousands of man hours on a weekly basis,” he said.
The arrangement is facing some opposition internally at Google, where more than 700 employees signed a letter that was sent this week to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, calling on the company to reject classified workloads. They said in the letter that they did not want the technology to be used “in inhumane or extremely harmful ways.”
According to Stanley, the overarching goal is to achieve the best results for America’s war fighters. To get there, the Pentagon needs to make sure it is using AI models appropriately.
“I have a personal quote that I usually say in these moments, you can’t cook a Thanksgiving turkey in the microwave,” he said. “You have to have the right technology in the right use case to get the right results.”
Stanley said Anthropic’s Mythos rollout earlier this month was a warning. Due to its advanced cyber capabilities and the potential risks they pose, the powerful model was made available to a limited number of companies.
Stanley said the DOD is “taking this very seriously” to “make sure we’re not only responding to this moment but are prepared for what’s to come, with a whole range of AI-enabled capabilities” in areas that pose a challenge.
—CNBC’s Jennifer Elias contributed to this report.
Watch: Google, Pentagon in talks to deploy Gemini in classified systems
