Google and OpenAI employees support Anthropic’s Pentagon stand with an open letter

Anthropic reached an impasse with the United States Department of Defense over the military’s request for unrestricted access to the company’s AI technology. But as the Pentagon’s Friday afternoon deadline to comply with Anthropic approaches, more than 300 Google employees and more than 60 OpenAI employees have signed an open letter urging their company leaders to support Anthropic and reject this unilateral use.

Specifically, Anthropic stands against the use of AI in mass surveillance at home and autonomous weapons. The signatories of the open letter want to encourage their employers to “set aside their differences and come together” to respect the restrictions set by Anthropic.

“They are trying to separate each company for fear that the other will agree,” said the letter. “That trick only works if none of us know where the others are.”

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

Company leaders have yet to officially respond to the letter. TechCrunch has reached out to Google and OpenAI for comment.

However, informal statements suggest that both companies are sympathetic to Anthropic’s side of the case. In an interview with CNBC on Friday morning, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he “doesn’t personally believe the Pentagon should threaten the DPA with these companies.” According to a CNN reporter, a spokesperson for OpenAI confirmed that the company shares Anthropic’s red lines against autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.

Google DeepMind has not officially commented on the controversy, but Chief Scientist Jeff Dean, who may have been speaking as one, has voiced opposition to mass government surveillance.

“Mass surveillance violates the Fourth Amendment and adversely affects free speech,” Dean wrote in X. “Surveillance programs are often abused for political or discriminatory purposes.”

According to an Axios report, the military can currently use X’s Grok, Google’s Gemini, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT to perform unspecified tasks, and they have been in talks with Google and OpenAI to bring their technology to use in classified operations.

While Anthropic has an existing partnership with the Pentagon, the AI ​​company remains tight-lipped about whether its AI can be used for mass surveillance at home, or completely autonomous weapons.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei that if his company didn’t comply, 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 requirements.

In a statement on Thursday, Amodei maintained his company’s position. “These last two threats are inherently contradictory: one calls us a security risk; the other lists Claude as essential to national security,” the statement read. “However, these threats do not change our position: we cannot accept their request in good conscience.”