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Last week, a federal court upheld the Trump administration’s designation of Anthropic as a “supply chain risk,” a scarlet letter that would effectively label the company a national security threat. It was a major win for the federal government in its long-running dispute with the AI startup, which earlier this year said it would not allow the Pentagon to use its technology for domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons systems.

The legal battle—which has yet to be settled in court—comes down to a single question: Who should have the final say over how American-made technology gets used by the military? And by extension, who has the power to shape American national security interests? Historically, that power rested solely and unambiguously in the hands of the federal government. Today things are much murkier—and much more dangerous, according to the author and longtime national defense journalist Sharon Weinberger, author of the new book, Valley of Death. “This idea that a private company should dictate to the Pentagon how technology is used… this is what you’re seeing now,” she told Gizmodo in an interview.

S. government; the Pentagon never had to get Lockheed Martin’s permission before using the F-22 to conduct bombing raids in Afghanistan. That dynamic has shifted in recent decades throughout the tech boom in Silicon Valley, which has given rise to the wealthiest companies the world has ever known.

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