‘Not worth it’: OpenAI researcher questions Pentagon amid ‘Cancel ChatGPT’ trend

An OpenAI researcher has questioned the company’s deal to deploy its AI tools in classified environments for the US Department of Defense. The ChatGPT maker announced the agreement late last week, just hours after its rival Anthropic was barred by the US government following its refusal to allow carte blanche use of its Claude AI chatbot in military applications.

In a post on X, OpenAI researcher Aidan McLaughlin wrote, “i personally don’t think this deal was worth it”.

When asked about the conflict between his stance and the one taken by his company, McLaughlin added, “ofc i feel many strong things whenever openai makes headlines, but the volume and thoughtfulness of discussion internally is overwhelming, and i feel incredibly proud to work somewhere where people can speak their mind”.

However, McLaughlin isn't the only former or current OpenAI employee talking about the company's Pentagon decision.

Even CEO Sam Altman agreed that the company shouldn't have ‘rushed’ to get the deal out on the same day when Anthropic's deal fell apart and it was listed as a supply chain risk by the DoD.

“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,” Altman wrote.

“The language is now updated to address this, but I also strongly believe that the world should not have to rely on trust in AI labs or intelligence agencies for their safety and security,” Brown added.

Meanwhile, Miles Brundage, former head of policy research at OpenAI, wrote in a post that OpenAI ‘screwed’ Anthropic while framing it as if it helped its rival.

“In light of what external lawyers and the Pentagon are saying, OpenAI employees’ default assumption here should unfortunately be that OpenAI caved + framed it as not caving, and screwed Anthropic while framing it as helping them,” he wrote.

“OpenAI may very well have gotten what they wanted and, at the same time, this could have weakened Anthropic’s bargaining position since Anthropic cared about a detail OAI didn’t, and been caving from their POV,” he added.

Ever since OpenAI signed its deal with the US government, the company has seen backlash on social media with users lashing out at the company and threatening to switch over to Claude.