OpenAI gives Pentagon AI model access after Anthropic dust up

It has built safeguards to ensure its models behave as they should as part of the deployment. Read more at straitstimes.com.

SAN FRANCISCO – OpenAI has agreed to deploy its own artificial intelligence models within the Defence Department’s classified network after rival Anthropic PBC saw its relationship with the Pentagon implode over surveillance and autonomous weapons concerns. 

OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman said late on Feb 27 that he’d reached an agreement with the department that reflects the firm’s principles on prohibiting “domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems.”

The startup also built safeguards to ensure its models behave as they should as part of the deployment, Mr Altman said in a post on the social media platform X. 

OpenAI declined to comment on whether the firm’s services for the department would replace the work previously done by Anthropic.

The Defence Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Feb 27 night.

Just hours earlier, the Pentagon declared Anthropic a supply-chain risk, a move that could have profound consequences for the company’s business and escalated a feud between the artificial intelligence startup and defence officials over safeguards on its technology.