OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that his company has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense, following ethical concerns raised by previous contractor Anthropic over military use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

In a statement posted on X late Friday, Altman said the deal was made after the Defense Department demonstrated its "deep respect for safety."

Altman stated that the Pentagon agreed to OpenAI's principles that its technology would not be used for "domestic mass surveillance" or "autonomous weapon systems," affirming that humans would retain "responsibility for the use of force."

The announcement came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using Anthropic, whose CEO Dario Amodei had said his company could not "in good conscience accede" to certain Pentagon demands.

It has been reported that Anthropic's Claude AI software was used by the U.S. military to aid in the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January.

Human rights advocates have expressed concerns about the unregulated use of AI models by militaries, including the Israeli army in its war on Gaza.

Source: www.aljazeera.com