OpenAI officially revealed additional safeguards details to protect the use of its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technology on the U.S. defense department's classified network.
On Friday, the company’s CEO Sam Altman announced a partnership with the Pentagon following President Donald Trump’s orders to “immediately cease” use of Anthropic, with Pentagon labeling it “a supply-chain risk.”
According to OpenAI, the contract with the Department of Defense, named as the Department of War, enforces three red lines: OpenAI technology cannot be used for mass domestic surveillance, to direct autonomous weapons systems, or for any critical automated decisions.
"In our agreement, we protect our red lines through a more expansive, multi-layered approach. We retain full discretion over our safety stack, we deploy via cloud, cleared OpenAI personnel are in the loop, and we have strong contractual protections," OpenAI stated.
The Pentagon has agreed worth up to $200 million each with the leading players of AI labs in the past year, including Anthropic, OpenAI and Google.
The Pentagon is looking to preserve all flexibility in defense and not be restricted by warnings from the technology's creators against powering weapons with unreliable AI.
Furthermore, the ChatGPT manufacturer issued a warning that any breach of its contract by the US government could lead to immediate termination, though "We don't expect that to happen," adding "We have made our position on this clear to the government."
As for Anthropic, the company is now intending to take legal action against being labeled as “a supply-chain risk.”
