Big Take Podcast

The Pentagon Is Embracing AI in Warfare. Where Are the Guardrails?

The US military’s pursuit of AI helped enable attacks of unprecedented intensity in Iran. On today’s Big Take podcast, how we reached this point – and the potential for things to go wrong.

A Soldier assigned to 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment employs lethal small unmanned aerial systems during a visit with Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth at Fort Benning, Georgia on Sept. 4, 2025. The lethal employment of first person drones is a critical step on the road to drone dominance and every repetition informs the Army’s continuous transformation efforts.Source: US Army

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By Julia Press and David Gura

March 12, 2026 at 9:32 PM UTC

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In the first 24 hours of US attacks on Iran, the scale of firepower more than doubled that of the US’ initial assault on Iraq in 2003 — an expansion made possible by the Pentagon’s embrace of AI. Just hours before the attack, the US parted ways with AI company Anthropic, after the company raised concerns over how the Defense Department might use its tools. The Pentagon says it wants the ability to use the tools for “all lawful purposes.”