Hundreds of Google, OpenAI employees back Anthropic in Pentagon fight

Hundreds of employees at Google and OpenAI are backing artificial intelligence technology company Anthropic, which faces a Friday evening deadline to give the Pentagon permission to use its AI system as it wishes or face repercussions from the department. 

Employees who signed a letter alleged the Pentagon was trying to “get them to agree to what Anthropic has refused,” which could imply the Pentagon has inquired with the top AI companies about similar access to their technology. The letter is still accepting signatures.

“We hope our leaders will put aside their differences and stand together to continue to refuse the Department of War’s current demands for permission to use our models for domestic mass surveillance and autonomously killing people without human oversight,” reads the letter, signed by more than 430 employees.

The Pentagon has remained in a standoff with Anthropic for weeks over military access to its AI model Claude, which the company has made so that it cannot be used to conduct mass surveillance or develop lethal autonomous weapons.

The Pentagon put a 5:01 p.m. EST Friday deadline for the company to grant the Pentagon access to Claude and threatened to enact the Defense Production Act (DPA), rescind a $200 million contract and label the company as a “supply chain risk” if it does not comply. 

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said in a Thursday statement that his company “cannot in good conscience accede to their request.” Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesperson, responded Thursday that the department has “no interest” in using AI to conduct mass surveillance of U.S. citizens nor to develop and operate autonomous weapons. 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Friday that he agrees with Anthropic’s red lines for its AI model. The companies are competitors in the AI industry. 

“I don’t personally think the Pentagon should be threatening DPA against these companies,” Altman told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Friday morning. “As long as it is going to comply with legal protections and the few red lines that the field, we have, I think we share with Anthropic and that other companies also independently agree with, I think it is important to do that.” 

More than 100 employees on Google’s AI team signed an internal letter they sent to Jeff Dean, the chief scientist of Google DeepMind, according to a New York Times report. The report said employees who signed the letter didn’t want Google to allow military access to Google’s Gemini AI to surveil U.S. citizens or to steer autonomous lethal weapons. 

“Please do everything in your power to stop any deal which crosses these basic red lines,” the employees reportedly wrote. “We love working at Google and want to be proud of our work.”