Sam Altman ‘de-escalate’ DoD tensions OpenAI employees back Anthropic

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told staffers late Thursday that he would like the company “try to help de-escalate things” between rival Anthropic and the Department of Defense.

“We have long believed that AI should not be used for mass surveillance or autonomous lethal weapons, and that humans should remain in the loop for high-stakes automated decisions,” Altman wrote in a memo that was viewed by CNBC. “These are our main red lines.”

Anthropic has until 5:01 p.m. ET on Friday to decide whether it will agree to give the Pentagon permission to use its artificial intelligence models in all lawful use cases without limitation. The startup wants assurance that its technology won’t be used for fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance of Americans, but the DoD hasn’t budged. 

Altman’s internal letter on Thursday was meant to show that OpenAI shares Anthropic’s boundaries. The Wall Street Journal was first to report the memo.

Prior to the Altman memo, OpenAI employees had begun to speak out in support of Anthropic on social media. Some 70 current staffers have signed an open letter titled, “We Will Not Be Divided,” which aims to create a “shared understanding and solidarity in the face of this pressure” from the department, according to its website.

“For all the differences I have with Anthropic, I mostly trust them as a company, and I think they really do care about safety, and I’ve been happy that they’ve been supporting our war fighters,” Altman told CNBC in an interview on Friday. “I’m not sure where this is going to go.”

OpenAI was awarded a $200 million contract by the DoD last year, which allowed the agency to begin using the startup’s models in non-classified use cases. Anthropic was the first AI lab to integrate its models into mission workflows on classified networks.

Altman said he will see if OpenAI can strike a deal with the DoD to deploy its models in classified environments in a way that “fits with our principles.” He said the company would build technical safeguards and deploy personnel to “ensure things are working correctly.”

“We would ask for the contract to cover any use except those which are unlawful or unsuited to cloud deployments, such as domestic surveillance and autonomous offensive weapons,” Altman wrote.

Altman said OpenAI has had meetings about the topic in recent days, and that the company hasn’t yet arrived at a decision on what to do. He said more meetings will take place with OpenAI’s safety teams on Friday.

“This is a case where it’s important to me that we do the right thing, not the easy thing that looks strong but is disingenuous,” Altman wrote. “But I realize it may not “look good” for us in the short term, and that there is a lot of nuance and context.”

— CNBC’s Kate Rooney contributed to this report.

WATCH: OpenAI closes $110 billion funding round with backing from Amazon, Nvidia, Softbank