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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly defended his company’s new Pentagon contract on Saturday, a day after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to cut ties with rival Anthropic.
Hours after the United States and Israel launched a joint offensive against Iran, Altman spoke to X in response to questions about an agreement that allows the Department of the Army (DoW) to deploy OpenAI’s artificial intelligence (AI) models on sensitive networks.
“I would like to answer questions about our work with the DoW and our thinking over the past few days,” he said.
“The security and broad benefit-sharing of AI is core to our mission. 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 reflects them in our laws and policies, and we have incorporated them into the agreement,” Altman said in announcing the agreement late Friday.
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman defended the company’s agreement with the Department of Defense after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to phase out rival Anthropic. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
The OpenAI agreement comes as President Trump directed all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic technology and set a six-month phase-out period, intensifying the debate over how AI should be used in military operations.
Secretary of the Army Pete Hegseth said he was directing the department to designate Anthropic as a “supply chain risk to national security.”
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had rejected the DoW’s request to allow the company’s AI to be used for “all lawful purposes,” citing concerns about “domestic mass surveillance” and “fully autonomous weapons.”
When asked why the DoW accepted OpenAI but not Anthropic, Altman said, “Anthropic seemed to be more focused on specific prohibitions in the contract, rather than citing applicable law, and we were comfortable with that.” He added that Antropic “may have wanted even more operational control than we had.”
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President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to cut ties with Anthropic, intensifying the debate over military AI use. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Altman said the DoW did not make any explicit or implicit threats before reaching the agreement, adding that Pentagon officials were “really surprised that we were willing to consider declassification.”
He said OpenAI initially planned to only do unclassified work with the Department of Defense, but negotiations accelerated this week.
“We think the DoW clearly needs an AI partner, and doing classified work is obviously much more complex. We said no to previous deals in classified settings that Anthropic has done. We started talking with oW, and things really started moving on the classified side this week. We’re finding that DoW is flexible with what we need, and we want to support their very important mission,” Altman said.
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Sam Altman answered questions about X regarding OpenAI’s classified work with the Department of the Army. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Altman also addressed criticism that the agreement appeared rushed and said OpenAI acted quickly to “de-escalate the situation.”
“I think the way things are going right now is dangerous for human, healthy competition and for America,” he said. “We have negotiated similar terms for all other AI labs.”
Altman acknowledged that he remains concerned that future legal disputes could expose OpenAI to the same supply chain risk designation imposed on Anthropic.
“If we have to take that fight, we will, but it obviously exposes us to some degree of risk,” he said. “I remain very hopeful that this problem will be resolved. One of the reasons we wanted to act quickly was to help increase that likelihood.”
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman arrives to testify at a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing entitled “Winning the AI Race: Strengthening America’s Capabilities in Computing and Innovation” on May 8 at the Capitol in Washington, DC. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters/Reuters)
Anthropic previously told Fox News Digital that Hegseth’s designation of the company as a supply chain risk “results of months of stalled negotiations over two exceptions we requested for the lawful use of our AI model, Claude: domestic mass surveillance of American persons and fully autonomous weapons.”
Altman also addressed questions about whether the federal government might seek to nationalize OpenAI and other AI developments.
“I don’t know, of course. I’ve thought about it, of course, but with the current trajectory it seems very unlikely,” he said. “Having said that, I think a close partnership between the government and the companies building this technology is very important.”
Altman said the most difficult aspect of the settlement agreement involves “out-of-home surveillance.”
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“I accept that the U.S. military conducts some level of surveillance on foreign nationals, and I know that foreign governments are trying to conduct surveillance on us, but I still don’t like it.” “I think it’s really important that society really considers the consequences of this. Probably the single most important principle I care about when it comes to AI is that it’s democratized, and I can see surveillance making that worse.”
“On the other hand, I also respect the democratic process. I don’t think this is for me to decide,” he added.
