Sam Altman insists his technology will not be used by the U.S. military for “domestic mass surveillance” or “autonomous weapons.”
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Published February 28, 2026
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company reached the agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense after former contractor Anthropic raised ethical concerns about the military’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
In a statement published in X late Friday, Altman said OpenAI was awarded the contract after the Pentagon showed “a deep respect for security.”
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Altman said the Pentagon agreed with the company’s principles that OpenAI’s technology would not be used for “domestic mass surveillance” or “autonomous weapons systems,” and confirmed that humans would be “responsible for the use of force.”
“We remain committed to serving all humanity to the best of our ability,” Altman said, adding, “The world is a complex, messy, and sometimes dangerous place.”
The announcement came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using Anthropic, but Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said the company could not “in good conscience” comply with certain requests from the Department of Defense.
It has also been reported that Anthropic’s Claude AI software was used by the US military to assist in the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January.
Anthropic said it is refusing to lift safeguards that would prevent its technology from being used for mass surveillance in the United States or in programs for autonomous weapons that can attack targets without human intervention.
Human rights activists have expressed concern about the unregulated use of AI models by militaries, including the Israeli military, in the genocidal war in Gaza.
The Israeli military is reportedly using AI systems such as “Lavender,” “The Gospel,” and “Where’s Dad?” The purpose is to process mass surveillance data and create a list of Palestinians to be killed.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump called Anthropic a “left-wing mad job” and said agencies should immediately stop using the technology, but he gave the Pentagon six months to phase out the technology already integrated into military platforms.
