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Inside Pentagon’s AI Blacklist War | Maria Curi episode artwork

Apr 10, 2026 26 min

Inside Pentagon’s AI Blacklist War | Maria Curi

from The Friday Reporter Hosted by Lisa Camooso Miller

The Pentagon just tried to blacklist an AI company from all government work. Not because its technology failed — because the company refused to let its AI run autonomous weapons or surveil Americans at scale. That’s not a contract dispute, it’s a new kind of power struggle. And it’s reshaping the entire AI industry. Maria Curi is the AI+Government reporter at Axios and the author of the newsletter that drives tech policy conversations across Washington. She breaks down how the Defense Department is using procurement as policy — and why the stakes extend far beyond one company’s government contract. We get into who actually controls AI governance in this administration, what the Pentagon-Anthropic standoff means for every AI lab now doing business with the federal government, and the question Maria says nobody is asking yet — but should be. It’s Week Two of the April Axios takeover of The Friday Reporter. Get full access to Lisa Camooso Miller at newsletter.fridayreporter.com/subscribe

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Inside Pentagon’s AI Blacklist War | Maria Curi

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