OpenAI struck a deal on Friday to deploy its AI tools inside the Pentagon’s classified systems, hours after the Trump administration formally blacklisted rival Anthropic.
CEO Sam Altman announced the agreement on Friday on X, saying the Pentagon had agreed to two core safety principles: prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance, and a requirement for human oversight over the use of force, including in autonomous weapons systems.
Altman said the Department of War (DoW) confirmed it agreed to those terms and that the startup will also embed OpenAI engineers on-site to ensure model safety.
“We also will build technical safeguards to ensure our models behave as they should, which the DoW also wanted.”
What Led To This?
The backdrop is a weeks-long standoff between the Pentagon and Anthropic, whose Claude AI system became the first model to run on classified military networks under a contract worth up to $200 million. Anthropic had baked the same two restrictions — no autonomous weapons, no mass surveillance of U.S. citizens — into that agreement. The Pentagon, which says it has never sought to use AI for those purposes, demanded the clauses be removed so it could deploy Claude for “all lawful purposes.”
When Anthropic refused, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated the company a “supply chain risk” — a label typically reserved for firms with ties to foreign adversaries — and President Donald Trump ordered all federal agencies and military contractors to cut ties with the company.
In a statement on Friday, Anthropic said it was “deeply saddened” by this and would challenge any supply chain risk designation against it in court.
“We believe this designation would both be legally unsound and set a dangerous precedent for any American company that negotiates with the government,” the company said.
The Divergence That Matters
The core question now is what, exactly, OpenAI agreed to that Anthropic didn’t — because on paper, both companies had similar red lines. Altman said the Pentagon acknowledged the principles already reflected in U.S. law and policy.
“We are asking the DoW to offer these same terms to all AI companies, which in our opinion we think everyone should be willing to accept,” Altman wrote.
Anthropic argued the same thing and still got blacklisted. It is not clear what is different about OpenAI’s deal with the Pentagon compared with what Anthropic wanted. OpenAI and the Pentagon have been contacted by Benzinga for clarification.
Image via Shutterstock
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