I don't get it. Aren't these the same things that Anthropic was trying to negotiate?
Edit: it was explained elsewhere in this thread:
Saves you the hastle of visiting that shit-show.
individual posts on Twitter/X without requiring JavaScript and without being fed a sidebar full of algorithmic recommendations.
I presume you're on X so no offence to you directly.
https://x.com/UnderSecretaryF/status/2027594072811098230
https://xcancel.com/UnderSecretaryF/status/20275940728110982...
The OpenAI-DoW contract says "all lawful uses", and then reiterates the existing statutory limits on DoW operations. So it basically spells out in more detail what "all lawful uses" actually means under existing law. Of course, I expect it leaves interpreting that law up to the government, and Congress may change that law in the future.
Anthropic wanted to go beyond that. They wanted contractual limitations on those use cases that are stronger than the existing statutory limitations.
OpenAI has essentially agreed to a political fudge in which the Pentagon gets "all lawful uses" along with some ineffective language which sounds like what Anthropic wanted but is actually weaker. Anthropic wasn't willing to accept the fudge.
The former, grants the Congress the ability to change the definition of all „lawful use” as democratically mandated (if the war is officially declared, if the martial law is officially declared).
The latter, is subtle. There can exist a human responsibility for lethal actions taken by fully autonomous AI - the individual who deploys it, for instance, can be made responsible for the consequences even if each individual „pulling of a trigger” has no human in the loop (Dario’s PoV unacceptable).
Similarly, and less subtly, acceptance of foreign mass surveillance, domestic surveillance (as long as its lawful and not meeting the unlawful mass surveillance limits!) seems to be more in the Pentagon’s favor.
Whether we like it or not, we’re heading into some very unstable time. Anthropic wanted to anchor its performance to stable (maybe stale) social norms, Pentagon wanted to rely on AI provider even as we change those norms.
i once ran into someone in london in 2023 who was doing their thesis on AI regulation. they had essentially ended up doing a case-study on sam. their honest non-academic conclusion (which they shared quietly) was that they were absolutely terrified of sam altman.
fear is one of those signals we ought to listen to more often
It’s well established that belligerents can use mines, to separate the tactical decision of deploying for purposes of area denial; from the snap-second lethal decision (if one can stretch that definition) to detonate in response to an triggering event.
Dario’s model prohibits using AI to decide between enemy combatant and an innocent civilian (even if the AI is bad at it, it is better than just detonating anyways); Sam’s model inherits the notion that the „responsible human” is one that decided to mine that bridge; and AI can make the kill decision.
How is that fundamentally different in the future war where an officer might make a decision to send a bunch of drones up; but the drones themselves take on the lethal choice of enemy/ally/no-combatant engagement without any human in the loop? ELI5 why we can’t view these as smarter mines?
Altman publicly claimed he had no financial stake in OpenAI to emphasize his mission-driven focus. In 2024 it was revealed that Altman personally owned the OpenAI Startup Fund.
In May 2024, actress Scarlett Johansson accused Altman of intentionally mimicking her voice for ChatGPT's "Sky" persona after she had explicitly declined to work with them.
When OpenAI’s aggressive non-disparagement agreements were leaked, which threatened to strip departing employees of all their vested equity (potentially millions of dollars) if they criticized the company, Altman claimed he was unaware of the "provision."
However, if you live in the US and pay a passing attention to our idiotic politics, you know this is right out of the Trump playbook. It goes like this:
* Make a negotiation personal
* Emotionally lash out and kill the negotiation
* Complete a worse or similar deal, with a worse or similar party
* Celebrate your worse deal as a better deal
Importantly, you must waste enormous time and resources to secure nothing of substance.
That's why I actually believe that OpenAI will meet the same bar Anthropic did, at least for now. Will they continue to, in the same way Anthropic would have? Seems unlikely, but we'll see.
Anthropic said that mass surveillance was per se prohibited even if the government self-certified that it was lawful.
There's nothing in general about a tweet that makes it any more or less legally binding than any other public communication, and they certainly can be used in legally binding ways. But sure, a simple assertion to the public from the CEO of a privately held company about what a separate contract says is not legally binding - whether through tweet, blog, press release, news interview, or any other method.
e.g. google project maven, microsoft hololens (military), and much much more
Okay, yes, if you openly and directly state a unilateral contract offer and you're already in trouble with the SEC, Tweets can be legally binding.
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/just-go-on-the-internet-and-t...
They said yes to the same thing.
Makes perfect sense
Everyone is over thinking it.
There would have been a conversation between Hegseth and Trump that went something like:
This guy thinks he can tell us what we can and can’t do.
Get rid of him.
It’s that simple.
He lacks confidence yet feels incredibly arrogant.
He would succeed in academia as the principal of some prestige university with this exterior, not as CEO of an AI company.
OpenAI agrees with Dept. of War to deploy models in their classified network - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47189650 - Feb 2026 (22 comments)
Unfortunately, this is the new arms race, race to the moon, and all that together.
Not at all, as a matter of fact I'm just stating what you're stating. It's just business.
He basically takes advantage of people's limited memories and default assumption that when a person says something its honest.
The language is so coded that the many places where the core statement must be negated stand out like a sore thumb.
Probably the most corrupt way of killing a competitor I’ve heard of.
The people who actually know stuff about the world are reality TV stars, Fox News hosts, and podcasters just asking questions.
Those are the people with actual knowledge.
Coming out publicly playing their hand like it's a royal flush when it's a 7 high and their cards are facing their opponent clearly wasn't going to do anything. The cynical take is they aren't that naive and this just gives them plausible deniability within their social circles when they are interrogated as to why they work for these corporations. But I like to give the benefit of the doubt.
So you better just let the guys with the guns do whatever they want.