OpenAI’s Altman says defense deal was ‘opportunistic and sloppy

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Monday that the company “shouldn’t rush” its latest deal with the U.S. Department of Defense and will make some revisions to the agreement.

Comes after ChatGPT producer announced He had struck a new deal with the Defense Department on Friday, just hours after the White House ordered federal agencies to stop using tools from rival artificial intelligence company Anthropic and hours before Washington launched an attack on Iran.

One to mail At X, Altman said OpenAI would amend the contract to include new language; This includes “The AI ​​system will not be used intentionally for domestic surveillance of U.S. citizens and citizens.”

He added that the Department of Defense has confirmed that OpenAI tools will not be used by intelligence agencies such as the NSA.

“There are a lot of things the technology isn’t ready for yet, and there are a lot of areas where we don’t yet understand the trade-offs needed for security,” Altman said, adding that the company would work with the Pentagon on technical protections.

The CEO also admitted that he made a mistake and “shouldn’t have rushed” to get the deal done on Friday.

“We were really trying to deescalate things and avoid a much worse outcome, but I think it just seemed opportunistic and sloppy,” he said.

This statement follows a public dispute between Anthropic and Washington over security measures for Claude AI systems. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also said the company would be considered a supply chain threat.

There was anthropic sought-after guarantees He said his vehicles would not be used in the United States for purposes such as domestic surveillance or the operation and development of autonomous weapons without human control.

The dispute began after it was revealed that Anthropic’s Claude was used in the US military’s raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, but the company did not publicly dispute the use case.

OpenAI’s deal with the Pentagon comes on the heels of the collapse of talks between Anthropic and the Department of Defense, sparking public outcry online among many users. reportedly leaving ChatGPT for Claude in app stores.

Altman further addressed the controversy in his post, saying: “In my conversations over the weekend, I reiterated that Anthropic should not be defined as a group. [supply chain risk]and we hope [Department of Defense] “We offer them the same conditions we agreed on.”