Sam Altman tells OpenAI staffers that military’s ‘operational decisions’ are up to the government

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees in an all-hands meeting on Tuesday that the company doesn’t “get to make operational decisions” regarding how its artificial intelligence technology is used by the Department of Defense.

“So maybe you think the Iran strike was good and the Venezuela invasion was bad,” Altman said Tuesday, according to a partial transcript of the meeting reviewed by CNBC. “You don’t get to weigh in on that.”

The meeting occurred four days after OpenAI announced its DoD arrangement, which landed just hours before the U.S. and Israel began carrying out strikes against Iran.

Altman told employees that the DoD respects OpenAI’s technical expertise, wants input about where its models are a good fit and will allow the company to build the safety stack it deems appropriate, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the meeting was was private.

But Altman said the agency has also made it clear that operational decisions rest with Secretary Pete Hegseth. Altman has been vocally criticized, including by some OpenAI employees, since announcing the deal with the Pentagon shortly after rival Anthropic was blacklisted and labeled a “Supply-Chain Risk to National Security.” President Donald Trump also directed every federal agency in the U.S. to “immediately cease” all use Anthropic’s technology.

Anthropic’s AI was reportedly used in the Iran strikes over the weekend as well as for the capturing of ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in January.

Altman has defended OpenAI’s contract in various social media posts, though he conceded that it looked “looked opportunistic and sloppy” and that the company “shouldn’t have rushed to get this out on Friday.” He said in a post on X that day that the DoD “displayed a deep respect for safety and a desire to partner to achieve the best possible outcome.”

Anthropic was the first lab to deploy its models across the DoD’s classified network, and had been trying to negotiate the ongoing terms of its contract before talks collapsed. The company wanted assurance that its models would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or mass surveillance of Americans, while the DoD wanted Anthropic to agree to let the military use the models across all lawful use cases.

Last year, OpenAI was awarded a $200 million contract by the DoD, which allowed the agency to begin using the startup’s models in nonclassified use cases. The new arrangement will allow the company to deploy its models across the department’s classified networks.

Elon Musk’s xAI has also agreed to deploy its models across classified use cases.

“I believe we will hopefully have the best models that will encourage the government to be willing to work with us, even if our safety stack annoys them,” Altman said Tuesday. “But there will be at least one other actor, which I assume will be xAI, which effectively will say ‘We’ll do whatever you want.'”

Altman and Musk, two of the co-founders of OpenAI, are engaged in a heated legal battle that’s slated to go to trial next month.

XAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

— CNBC’s Kate Rooney contributed to this report.

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