- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has sent out a lengthy internal memo
- It attacks OpenAI’s messaging around its new Pentagon deal
- Anthropic and Claude may still be in talks with the US government
If you thought the debate around AI company dealings with the US military was going to simmer down, think again: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has rather candidly accused rival OpenAI of telling “straight up lies” about its agreements with the Pentagon.
Late last week, Anthropic stepped away from a new deal with US intelligence, citing safety concerns over the use of AI in mass surveillance (especially on domestic citizens) and fully autonomous weapons. In response, US officials and the President himself declared that Anthropic’s AI bot Claude would no longer be used by government agencies.
OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman swiftly moved in, announcing their own deal with the US military that apparently had “more guardrails” than the one offered to Anthropic. Users were far from convinced about the ethics: in the days since, ChatGPT uninstalls have risen sharply, and Claude has rapidly risen up the App Store charts.
In an internal memo (via The Information), Amodei’s response has been to question OpenAI’s claims. He calls OpenAI’s overall messaging “mendacious”, and suggests it includes phrases like “safety layer” that don’t fully hold up. In Amodei’s opinion, a lot of the reassurances OpenAI has given are “safety theater”.
OpenAI is “placating employees”
Amodei goes on to say that OpenAI is more concerned with “placating employees” than actually safeguarding the use of AI, and questions the caveat in the Pentagon deal that mentions “all lawful use” — something which can be rather a gray area when it comes to issues like domestic surveillance authorizations.
The memo also highlights how AI can be fooled and misused – in the most basic way, by simply lying to it about the nature of the data it’s processing – while emphasizing Anthropic’s focus on safety and security. The approaches that OpenAI is taking here “mostly do not work”, Amodei says.
OpenAI chief Sam Altman will almost definitely have more to say, and has already admitted the initial OpenAI announcement was “rushed” and “sloppy”. In the meantime, the Financial Times reports that Anthropic and Claude may be finding a way back into a deal with the US military after all — though it’s not clear what the terms would be.
The report doesn’t add much about the latest negotiations, or how they could potentially impact the OpenAI agreement, but it seems as though the relationship between Anthropic and the US government might not be quite over yet.
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