OpenAI updates Department of War deal after backlash

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the company rushed its recent deal with the U.S. Department of War (DOW), admitting that it appeared "opportunistic and sloppy." In an internal memo he subsequently shared on X, Altman stated that OpenAI is now amending its agreement to supply the military with AI technology. It seems to have done little to assuage concerns.

"[W]e shouldn't have rushed to get this out on Friday," Altman wrote in an X post on Monday. "The issues are super complex, and demand clear communication. We were genuinely trying to de-escalate things and avoid a much worse outcome, but I think it just looked opportunistic and sloppy."

OpenAI announced its partnership with the DOW late last week, snapping up the contract within days of President Donald Trump ordering federal agencies to stop using competitor Anthropic. According to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, the split was because it refused the DOW's demands that it remove safeguards against using AI for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. Instead, the DOW wanted to use Anthropic's AI tools for "any lawful use."

As such, OpenAI's swift DOW deal provoked immediate backlash from its civilian users. Despite OpenAI's claim that its deal has even more safeguards than Anthropic's original agreement, the contract appeared to allow for both mass surveillance and AI-controlled weapons as long as such use is legal, and even laid out circumstances in which it would be permitted.

Now OpenAI is attempting damage control, stating that it has worked with the DOW to add new language to the contract directly addressing use of its tech for domestic surveillance. 

"Throughout our discussions, the Department [of War] made clear it shares our commitment to ensuring our tools will not be used for domestic surveillance," OpenAI wrote Monday in an update to its original deal announcement. 

OpenAI updates Department of War deal after backlash

Unfortunately, the new amendments OpenAI has shared continue to rely upon legality as the restraining limit preventing mass surveillance, leaving such use a possibility should the U.S. government change the law. They also fail to address the issue of autonomous weapons.

"Consistent with applicable laws... the AI system shall not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of U.S. persons and nationals," the new sections read. "For the avoidance of doubt, the Department understands this limitation to prohibit deliberate tracking, surveillance, or monitoring of U.S. persons or nationals, including through the procurement or use of commercially acquired personal or identifiable information."

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Many social media users reacted to OpenAI's contract changes with scepticism, some arguing that its specific prohibition of "deliberate" surveillance leaves notable loopholes.

"Hard not to read as admitting to an AI dragnet," political researcher Tyson Brody (@tysonbrody) responded to Altman's post. "'intentionally' and 'deliberate' - so Americans will be swept up in this data, but the government can claim 'incidental collection' and thus legal."

"'Not intentionally used' isn’t a real safeguard in an autonomous AI system," wrote @Andy_Bloch. "It can wind up doing surveillance because of what it was trained on, what it figures out, or how people use it afterward."

Altman previously indicated that OpenAI would only limit use of its AI tools along legal lines, not ethical ones, during a Q&A held shortly after the DOW deal was announced. The CEO expressed a reluctance to take an ethical stance, stating that OpenAI prefers to follow the government's directions rather than consider such issues itself.

Despite criticism of this apparent abdication of responsibility, Altman reiterated this position again in his new memo, framing it as deference to "democratic processes."

"It should be the government making the key decisions about society," Altman wrote. "We want to have a voice, and a seat at the table where we can share our expertise, and to fight for principles of liberty. But we are clear on how the system works (because a lot of people have asked, if I received what I believed was an unconstitutional order, of course I would rather go to jail than follow it)."

Altman did state that DOW intelligence agencies such as the National Security Agency (NSA) won't use OpenAI's technology without an amendment to their contract. Even so, it currently seems unlikely that OpenAI would deny legal requests for such modifications, regardless of any ethical issues that may arise. (The NSA was previously revealed to have been conducting mass surveillance of U.S. citizens by whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013.)

Numerous OpenAI customers have cancelled their ChatGPT subscriptions in response to the company's deal with the DOW, with uninstalls reportedly jumping 295 percent in the wake of the news. Anthropic's AI chatbot Claude has since dethroned ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app in the U.S. Apple App Store, 

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.