Anthropic CEO criticises OpenAI’s defense deal, questions safety claims

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has criticised OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman over the company’s recent deal with the United States Department of Defense (DoD), calling the safety claims around the agreement misleading. In a memo sent to employees, reported by The Information, Amodei described OpenAI’s dealing with DoD as ‘safety theater.’

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‘The main reason (OpenAI) accepted (the DoD’s deal) and we did not is that they cared about placating employees, and we actually cared about preventing abuses,’ Amodei wrote.

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For those unaware, Anthropic and the DoD were unable to reach a new agreement last week regarding the military’s request for broader access to the company’s AI technology. Anthropic already had a $200 million contract with the US military, but talks reportedly collapsed after the company asked for stronger restrictions on how its AI could be used.

Anthropic wanted the DoD to clearly confirm that its AI systems would not be used for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weapons. 

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Following the failed agreement, the DoD signed a deal with OpenAI instead. According to a blog post from OpenAI, the contract allows its AI systems to be used for ‘all lawful purposes.’

‘It was clear in our interaction that the DoW considers mass domestic surveillance illegal and was not planning to use it for this purpose,’ OpenAI’s blog post stated. ‘We ensured that the fact that it is not covered under lawful use was made explicit in our contract.’

However, Amodei pushed back against this explanation. In his internal letter, he accused OpenAI of misrepresenting the situation. In his memo, Amodei referred to OpenAI’s messaging as ‘straight up lies,’ stating that Altman is falsely ‘presenting himself as a peacemaker and dealmaker.’

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‘I think this attempted spin/gaslighting is not working very well on the general public or the media, where people mostly see OpenAI’s deal with the DoW as sketchy or suspicious, and see us as the heroes (we’re #2 in the App Store now!),’ Amodei wrote to his staff. ‘It is working on some Twitter morons, which doesn’t matter, but my main worry is how to make sure it doesn’t work on OpenAI employees.’

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Ayushi Jain

Ayushi works as Chief Copy Editor at Digit, covering everything from breaking tech news to in-depth smartphone reviews. Prior to Digit, she was part of the editorial team at IANS. View Full Profile