"All Lawful Use": Much More Than You Wanted To Know
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to the Astral Codex X podcast for the 1st of March, 2026. Title, All Lawful Use, Much More Than You Wanted to Know, a guest post by anonymous readers. This is an audio version of Astral Codex X, Scott Alexander's Substack. If you like it, you can subscribe at astralcodex10.substack.com.
Last Friday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth declared AI company Anthropic a supply chain risk, the first time this designation has ever been applied to a US company.
What recent designation did Secretary of War Pete Hegseth apply to Anthropic?
The trigger for the move was Anthropic's refusal to allow the Department of War to use their AIs for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. A few hours later, Hegseth and Sam Altman declared an agreement in principle for OpenAI's models to be used in the niche vacated by Anthropic. Altman stated that he had received guarantees that OpenAI's models wouldn't be used for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons either. But given Hegseth's unwillingness to concede these points with Anthropic, observers speculated that the safeguards in Altman's contract must be weaker, or in a worst-case scenario, completely toothless. The debate centres on the Department of War's demand that AIs be permitted for all lawful use, in quotes.
Anthropic worried that mass surveillance and autonomous weaponry would de facto fall into this category. Hegseth and Altman have tried to reassure the public that they won't, and the parts of their agreement that have leaked to the public cite the statutes that Altman expects to constrain this category. Altman's initial statement seems to suggest additional prohibitions, but on a closer read, provides little tangible evidence of meaningful further restrictions. Some alert ACX readers have done a deep dive into national security law to try to untangle the situation. Footnote, they wish to remain anonymous, but none are employees of any major AI lab or the Department of War. Back to the text. Their conclusion mirrors that of Anthropic and the majority of Twitter commentators.
This is not enough. Current laws against domestic mass surveillance and autonomous weapons have wide loopholes in practice. Further, many of the rules which do exist can be changed by the Department of War at any time. Although OpenAI's national security lead said that This is not how the contract law usually works, and not how the provision is likely to be enforced. Therefore, these guarantees are not helpful. Footnote. For more, see the section Comments on OpenAI's FAQ. To learn more about the details, let's look at the law. Mass domestic surveillance. More than you wanted to know. Mass and targeted surveillance of foreigners in their foreign countries is legal. Broadly, the courts have declined to grant standing to allow court cases to test the executive branch's position that the president has inherent powers derived from his constitutional role to authorize foreign intelligence and counterintelligence surveillance, which de facto has allowed this position to become the standard executive branch argument for lawfulness.
Targeted surveillance of Americans domestically is legal for domestic law enforcement purposes and, in narrow and usually time-limited cases, or for intelligence and counterterrorism. The surveilling agency must get the permission of a court first. Normal courts for law enforcement, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, court for intelligence. This latter category includes things like wiretapping Americans suspected of spying for Russia. Mass domestic surveillance of Americans, American companies, and US permanent residents, or for that matter, generally their counterparts in other Five Eyes partners, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, is more complicated. The current law is, roughly, that it's illegal to seek this kind of data, but legal to, quote, incidentally obtain it.
So, for example, if the US was looking for Al-Qaeda communications, it might tap a major undersea cable, and if tapping that cable happened to incidentally give it data on millions of Americans, it could keep that data.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:34
2
What recent designation did Secretary of War Pete Hegseth apply to Anthropic?
0:34–4:58
3
What were the implications of OpenAI's agreement with the Department of War?
4:58–8:05
4
How does the concept of 'all lawful use' affect AI applications?
8:05–13:12
5
What loopholes exist in current national security laws regarding surveillance?
13:12–17:32
6
How does mass domestic surveillance of Americans operate legally?
17:32–19:30
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Astral Codex Ten Podcast
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