This week on WIRED's Uncanny Valley podcast, hosts Zoë Schiffer, Brian Barrett, and Leah Feiger examine the high-stakes legal battle between AI firm Anthropic and the Department of Defense. The company is suing the Pentagon after being designated a supply chain risk, a label Anthropic claims is already unraveling major enterprise contracts and could ultimately cost billions. In a show of industry solidarity, employees from OpenAI and Google have filed a legal brief supporting Anthropic's position.

The conversation then shifts to the Trump administration's use of social media during the ongoing conflict with Iran. The official White House account has drawn criticism for posting memes that splice together clips from action films, video games, and anime with war footage. The hosts debate whether this represents a new, gamified form of wartime propaganda aimed more at generating outrage and engagement than rallying traditional support.

A WIRED investigation reveals how Event Strategies, a Virginia-based company whose associates helped organize the January 6th rally, has secured over $26 million in federal contracts since the start of the current administration. Many of these contracts are for planning events related to the America250 celebration, marking the nation's semiquincentennial.

Finally, the episode explores whether the venture capital industry, a major investor in AI, could itself be disrupted by the technology. The team discusses ADIN, the Autonomous Deal Investing Network, which uses AI agents to analyze startup pitches and suggest investments—work that traditionally falls to junior analysts. While the long-term impact remains unclear, it presents a moment of irony for an industry that has often positioned itself as uniquely human-driven.

Source: Wired