OpenAI CEO Sam Altman introduced late on Friday that his firm has reached an settlement permitting the Division of Protection to make use of its AI fashions within the division’s labeled community.
This follows a high-profile standoff between the division — additionally identified beneath the Trump administration because the Division of Warfare — and OpenAI’s rival Anthropic. The Pentagon pushed AI corporations, together with Anthropic, to permit their fashions be used “all lawful functions,” whereas Anthropic sought to attract a purple line round mass home surveillance and totally autonomous weapons.
In a lengthy statement released Thursday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei mentioned the corporate “by no means raised objections to specific army operations nor tried to restrict use of our expertise in an advert hoc method,” however he argued that “in a slim set of instances, we imagine AI can undermine, relatively than defend, democratic values.”
Greater than 60 OpenAI staff and 300 Google staff signed an open letter this week asking their employers to assist Anthropic’s place.
After Anthropic and the Pentagon failed to succeed in an settlement, President Donald Trump criticized the “Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic” in a social media put up that additionally directed federal companies to cease utilizing the corporate’s merchandise after a six-month part out interval.
In a separate post, Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth claimed Anthropic was making an attempt to “seize veto energy over the operational choices of the USA army.” Hegseth additionally mentioned he’s designating Anthropic as a supply-chain danger: “Efficient instantly, no contractor, provider, or accomplice that does enterprise with the USA army could conduct any business exercise with Anthropic.”
On Friday, Anthropic said it had “not but obtained direct communication from the Division of Warfare or the White Home on the standing of our negotiations,” however insisted it could “problem any provide chain danger designation in court docket.”
Techcrunch occasion
Boston, MA
|
June 9, 2026
Surprisingly, Altman claimed in a post on X that OpenAI’s new protection contract contains protections addressing the identical points that grew to become a flashpoint for Anthropic.
“Two of our most necessary security rules are prohibitions on home mass surveillance and human duty for using drive, together with for autonomous weapon methods,” Altman mentioned. “The DoW agrees with these rules, displays them in regulation and coverage, and we put them into our settlement.”
Altman mentioned OpenAI “will construct technical safeguards to make sure our fashions behave as they need to, which the DoW additionally needed,” and it’ll deploy engineers with the Pentagon “to assist with our fashions and to make sure their security.”
“We’re asking the DoW to supply these similar phrases to all AI corporations, which in our opinion we expect everybody ought to be prepared to simply accept,” Altman added. “We now have expressed our sturdy need to see issues de-escalate away from authorized and governmental actions and in direction of affordable agreements.”
Fortune’s Sharon Goldman reports that Altman informed OpenAI staff at an all-hands assembly that the federal government will permit the corporate to construct its personal “security stack” to forestall misuse, and that “if the mannequin refuses to do a activity, then the federal government wouldn’t drive OpenAI to make it try this activity.”
Altman’s put up got here shortly earlier than information broke that the U.S. and Israeli governments have begun bombing Iran, with Trump calling for the overthrow of the Iranian authorities.
