E.g., just this week MS fired two people for protesting the use of Azure to power the Palestinian Genocide [1].
When people talk about the military-industrial complex, what they really should be talking about is the military-FAANG complex. AI and military intelligence are both the same sad joke.
Lenat was no different in that, so I don't think it's fair to call him a grifter. I do think it's fair to call him out on being an asshole who put money above peoples' lives.
Btw, I've released some of my free stuff under a modified GNU 3.0 with an added clause that prohibits its use for military applications. I've been told that makes it "non-free" and it seems that's a bad thing. Lenat is only one nerd in a long line of nerds that need to think very hard about the ethics of their work.
____________
[1] https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-protest-employees-fired...
They were protesting about this:
https://www.972mag.com/microsoft-azure-openai-israeli-army-c...