Old-School Tech Finds New Life in Battlefield Data

WSJ Tech News Briefing

The Wall Street Journal

Tech News, News

4.3 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From Dell to Oracle and Nokia, tech brands you might know from the 1990s are advancing to the front line, where data is emerging as the latest weapon. WSJ Brussels Bureau Chief Dan Michaels joins us to discuss. Plus, there’s a new tech love story: the employees at AI startup Anthropic are obsessed with an albino alligator named Claude. Belle Lin hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from Viking, committed to exploring the world in comfort.
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0:14.7	And every Viking voyage is all-inclusive with no children and no casinos.
0:19.8	Discover more at Viking.com.
0:25.9	Welcome to Tech News Briefing.
0:28.6	It's Tuesday, September 16th.
0:31.0	I'm Bell Lynn for the Wall Street Journal.
0:34.1	The AI Startup Anthropics popular chatbot is named Claude.
0:39.2	So is a beloved albino alligator that lives at San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences.
0:46.6	What happened next between the AI startup and the albino alligator is the stuff of legend.
0:53.3	WSJ reporter Isabel Bousquet tells us how the love story blossomed.
0:58.2	Then battlefields from Ukraine to Gaza are transforming into sci-fi realms of AI-guided military robots
1:06.4	and relentless surveillance.
1:09.1	Legacy tech companies, including Nokia, Dell, and Oracle are jockeying to apply their decades of civilian experience in tech
1:17.6	to the increasingly data-centric frontline.
1:21.6	But first, employees at the $183 billion AI startup Anthropic have developed a bizarre fascination with the
1:32.2	Alligator Claude, who lives in a patch of swampland at the California Academy of Sciences.
1:37.6	It also happens that Anthropics' popular chatbot is also named Claude.
1:43.3	How did this uniquely San Francisco love story unfold?
1:47.6	WSJ reporter Isabel Busquette takes us into the heart of the AI boom on the West Coast.
1:54.1	Isabel, what's going on behind the scenes at Anthropic? It's really funny. I went to the
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