Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei isn’t happy—perhaps predictably—with OpenAI head Sam Altman. In a memo to staff, reports The InformationAmodei referred to OpenAI’s dealings with the Department of Defense as “security theater.”
“The main reason [OpenAI] accepted [the DoD’s deal] and we didn’t is that we cared about appeasing employees and we really cared about preventing abuses,” Amodei wrote.
Last week, Anthropic and the US Department of Defense (DoD) failed to reach an agreement on the military’s request for unrestricted access to the company’s AI technology. Anthropic, which already had a $200 million contract with the military, insisted the Defense Department confirm it would not use the company’s artificial intelligence to enable domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weaponry.
Instead, the State Department — known under the Trump administration as the War Department — struck a deal with OpenAI. Altman declare yourself that his company’s new defense contract would include protections against the same red lines that Anthropic had advocated.
In a letter to staff, Amodei refers to OpenAI’s messages as “outright lies,” stating that Altman falsely “presents himself as a peacemaker and negotiator.”
Amodei may not be speaking only from a position of bitterness, here. Humane specifically received subject with the Ministry of Defense insisting that the company’s AI be available for “any lawful use”. OpenAI told a blog post that its contract allows the use of its AI systems for “all lawful purposes”.
“It was clear in our interaction that the DoW considers mass domestic surveillance illegal and did not plan to use it for this purpose,” OpenAI’s blog post said. “We made sure that the fact that it wasn’t covered by fair use was made explicit in our contract.”
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Critics have pointed out that the law is subject to change and that what is considered illegal now may end up being allowed in the future.
And the public seems to be siding with Anthropic. ChatGPT uninstalls increased by 295% after OpenAI’s deal with the Department of Defense.
“I think this attempted spin/gaslighting doesn’t work very well with the general public or the media, where people mostly see OpenAI’s deal with DoW as sketchy or suspect and see us as heroes (we’re #2 in the App Store now!),” Amodei wrote to his staff. “It works on some Twitter idiots, which doesn’t matter, but my main concern is how to make sure it doesn’t work on OpenAI employees.”
