Employees at Google and OpenAI support Anthropic’s Pentagon position with an open letter

Anthropic has reached an impasse with the US War Department over the Army’s request for unrestricted access to the AI ​​company’s technology. But as the Pentagon’s Friday afternoon deadline for compliance with Anthropic approached, more than 300 Google employees and more than 60 OpenAI employees signed an open letter urging their company leaders to support Anthropic and reject this unilateral use.

Specifically, Anthropic has stood against the use of artificial intelligence for domestic mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. The signatories of the open letter seek to encourage employers to “set aside their differences and stand shoulder to shoulder” in support of the boundaries emphasized by Anthropic.

“They are trying to divide each company out of fear that the other company will give up,” the letter said. “This strategy will only work if none of us know where others stand.”

The letter specifically calls on executives at Google and OpenAI to maintain Anthropic’s red lines against mass surveillance and fully automated weapons. “We hope that our leaders will put aside their differences and stand together to continue to reject the current demands of the War Department.”

Leaders at the companies have not yet formally responded to the letter. TechCrunch has reached out to Google and OpenAI for comment.

However, unofficial data suggests that both companies are sympathetic to the anthropological side of the issue. In an interview with CNBC on Friday morning, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he “personally does not believe the Pentagon should threaten a DPA against these companies.” According to a CNN reporter, an OpenAI spokesperson confirmed that the company shares Anthropic’s red lines against autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.

Google DeepMind has not formally addressed the conflict, but chief scientist Jeff Dean, supposedly speaking as an individual, has expressed opposition to mass surveillance by the government.

“Mass surveillance violates the Fourth Amendment and has a chilling effect on freedom of expression,” Dean wrote in X. “Surveillance systems are vulnerable to abuse for political or discriminatory purposes.”

According to an Axios report, the Army can currently use X’s Grok, Google’s Gemini, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT for unclassified missions, and is negotiating with Google and OpenAI to bring its technology for use in classified work.

While Anthropic has an existing partnership with the Pentagon, the AI ​​company has remained steadfast in maintaining the boundaries of not using its AI for mass domestic surveillance, nor in fully autonomous weapons.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei that if his company did not concede, the Pentagon would either declare Anthropic a “supply chain risk” or invoke the Defense Production Act (DPA) to force the company to comply with military demands.

In a statement on Thursday, Amodei maintained his company’s position. “These last two threats are contradictory in nature: one classifies us as a security risk; the other describes Claude as essential to national security,” the statement read. “Regardless of this, these threats do not change our position: we cannot in good conscience comply with their request.”