OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks at the BlackRock Infrastructure Summit in Washington, DC on March 11, 2026.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he met with several members of Congress in Washington, D.C., and that Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) raised “serious questions” about the company’s approach to war and recent agreements with the Department of Defense.
In an interview with CNBC’s Emily Wilkins, Kelly said the group discussed “in great detail” how artificial intelligence systems would be used within the surveillance and kill chain. He called it a “good argument.”
“We’ve got to put guardrails in place and we’ve got to be constantly thinking about the Constitution and making sure we’re adhering to it,” Kelly said.
OpenAI signed the Pentagon contract late last month, just hours after rival Anthropic was blacklisted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who declared the company a “supply chain risk to national security.”
Anthropic was trying to renegotiate its contract with the Department of Defense, but negotiations stalled over disagreements over how to use the technology. The Pentagon required Anthropic to allow the military unfettered access to its models for all lawful purposes, but Anthropic sought assurances that its models would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance.
In a post on X on the day the deal collapsed, Altman said a ban on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including autonomous weapons systems, were two of the company’s “most important security principles.” He said the Department of Defense agreed and brought him into the agreement.
OpenAI has released excerpts from its contract with the Department of Defense, which states that the agency “may use its AI systems for any lawful purpose.” The company said it is confident that OpenAI’s security stack, contract language and existing law prevent the Department of Defense from using its AI systems for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons.
“I think it’s very important to support the U.S. government and the democratic process,” Altman told CNBC on Thursday. He added that OpenAI disagrees with the Department of Defense’s decision to designate anthropics as a supply chain risk, but believes the government should be able to make decisions about “how the most important things in this country work.”
The conflict between Anthropic and the Pentagon shocked officials and engineers in Washington. Many came to believe that Anthropic’s model was superior, as it was the first to be deployed in a classified government network, and championed the company’s ability to integrate with existing defense contractors such as Palantir.
Kelly, who is working with other senators to draft legislation that would put guardrails on Pentagon contracts with AI organizations, said Congress “has to play a role.”
“We need legislation that creates these boundaries and guardrails,” he said. “This is the United States Congress. Things don’t move as fast as we would like, but this technology is moving very fast.”
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