OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced late Friday that the company has signed a contract with the Department of Defense for AI tools. It was intended to be used in classified military systems, but at first glance it appeared to have similar guardrails, which rival Anthropic also requested.
The deal with OpenAI comes on the same day that President Donald Trump announced that all federal agencies must stop using Anthropic’s AI tools, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared that the company was considered a “supply chain risk” and had flatly refused to back down in negotiations with the Pentagon over requests for limits on the company’s AI systems used for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance of Americans.
However, Altman’s statement suggests that the Department of Defense has agreed to similar restrictions on OpenAI’s models.
“Two of our most important security principles are the prohibition of domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including autonomous weapons systems. The DoW agrees with these principles and has translated them into law and policy, and we have incorporated them into the agreement,” Altman said at X. “We will also build technical safeguards to ensure our models perform as expected, which is what the (Department of the Army) also wanted.”
Altman said the Pentagon will send front-line technicians to ensure the models are safe.
“We are asking the DoW to provide similar terms to all AI companies, which, in our opinion, everyone should be willing to accept. We have expressed a strong desire to see the situation escalate away from legal and government action and toward a reasonable agreement,” Altman said.
Anthropic announced Friday that it plans to legally challenge the “supply chain risk” designation, which is typically given to companies with direct ties to foreign adversaries. All contractors working with the military will be required to certify that their military work does not touch Anthropic’s products.
The difference between OpenAI’s contract with the Department of Defense and what Anthropic wanted is unclear.
CNN has asked both the Department of Defense and OpenAI for clarification.
Hegseth reposted Altman’s announcement on X, and Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for technology, said in a separate post on X: “When it comes to life-and-death issues for our warfighters, having a trusted, stable partner who is committed to working with integrity will make a huge difference as we enter the age of AI.”
