Sam Altman faced ‘serious questions’ in DC meeting OpenAI defense work

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met with a handful of lawmakers in Washington, D.C., and said Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., raised some “serious questions” about the company’s approach to war and its recent deal with the Department of Defense.

In an interview with CNBC’s Emily Wilkins, Kelly said the group talked “in detail” about how surveillance and artificial intelligence systems could be used in a kill chain. He called it a “good discussion.”

“There have to be guardrails and we have to make sure that we are always thinking about the Constitution and abiding by it,” Kelly said.

OpenAI struck a deal with the Department of Defense late last month, just hours after rival Anthropic was blacklisted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. declared company “Supply Chain Risk to National Security.”

Anthropic had been trying to renegotiate its contract with the Department of Defense, but talks stalled over disagreement over how the technology could be used. The Department of Defense wanted Anthropic to give the military unrestricted access to its models for all lawful purposes, while Anthropic sought assurances that its models would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance.

Altman said a post At He said the Department of Defense agreed and included them in the agreement.

OpenAI It was published An excerpt of its contract with the Department of Defense says the agency “may use the AI ​​System for all lawful purposes.” The company said it was confident that the Department of Defense would not be able to use its AI systems for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons due to OpenAI’s security stack, contract language, and existing laws.

“We think it’s very important to support the United States government and the democratic process,” Altman told CNBC on Thursday. OpenAI added that while it disagrees with the Pentagon’s decision to identify Anthropic as a supply chain risk, it thinks the government should be able to make decisions about “how the most important things in the country operate.”

The conflict between Anthropic and the Department of Defense came as a shock to officials and technology experts in Washington. Many had come to regard Anthropic’s models as superior; they were the first used in the agency’s models. classified networks – and defended the company’s talent integrate With existing defense contractors like Palantir.

Kelly is working with other senators to draft legislation that would put barriers to Defense Department contracts with AI organizations and said Congress “must have a role.”

“We need legislation on this issue, which creates some of these borders, some of these guardrails,” he said. “This is the United States Congress, things are not moving as fast as we would like, but this technology is moving very fast.”

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