Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Calls OpenAI's Messaging Around Military Deal 'Straight Up Lies'

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei is not happy -- perhaps predictably so -- with OpenAI chief Sam Altman. In a memo to staff, reported by The Information, Amodei referred to OpenAI's dealings with the Department of Defense as "safety theater." "The main reason [OpenAI] accepted [the DoD's deal] and we did not is that they cared about placating employees, and we actually cared about preventing abuses," Amodei wrote.

Last week, Anthropic and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) failed to come to an agreement over the military's request for unrestricted access to the AI company's technology. Anthropic, which already had a $200 million contract with the military, insisted the DoD affirm that it would not use the company's AI to enable domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weaponry. Instead, the DoD -- known under the Trump administration as the Department of War -- struck a deal with OpenAI. Altman stated that his company's new defense contract would include protections against the same red lines that Anthropic had asserted.

In a letter to staff, Amodei refers to OpenAI's messaging as "straight up lies," stating that Altman is falsely "presenting himself as a peacemaker and dealmaker." Amodei might not be speaking solely from a position of bitterness, here. Anthropic specifically took issue with the DoD's insistence on the company's AI being available for "any lawful use." [...] "I think this attempted spin/gaslighting is not working very well on the general public or the media, where people mostly see OpenAI's deal with the DoW as sketchy or suspicious, and see us as the heroes (we're #2 in the App Store now!)," Amodei wrote to his staff. "It is working on some Twitter morons, which doesn't matter, but my main worry is how to make sure it doesn't work on OpenAI employees."

Re:

[Valgrus Thunderaxe]

We're all dying.

Re:

[SumDog]

I love how Anthropic makes some statement about AI and war/surveillance, even through they have a partnership with Palentir. Such crazy bullshit from both of these brain destroying companies.

Re:

[machineghost]

They have morals, and draw serious lines (which they put effort into enforcing), to ensure those morals aren't compromised.

Now, you can absolutely debate whether the moral lines they set go far enough: that's fair.

But it's incredibly dishonest to suggest that the company that tries to be moral, whatever it's failings, is even in the same league as a company who has flat out said (more or less) that they'll shoot your grandmother in the face for enough $$$.

Oh great

[AcidFnTonic]

Oh great, now we can hear Sam make 20 MORE public announcements and flap his gums some more to keep everyone looking at them.

It was crazy how quickly once they were made to look bad by a real company he grew a voice. Like dude, where the hell were you when these deals were inked? You were there no? If not get a hold of your company, if you were, you FUCKING TRAITOR.

Now keep flapping those lips to keep people from seeing your competitor gain favor of the crowd.

Sit down, shut up, grow some balls. You spiny prick.

Re:

[Junta]

Would have been nice if the ousting of Altman in 2023 had stuck...

Re:

[Valgrus Thunderaxe]

Then Musk would be running the show.

Re:

[Junta]

Musk was already out by then...

Re:

[Nicholas Grayhame]

Out Of The Frying Pan and Into The Fire

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[machineghost]

There must be some real OpenAI/Sam Altman stans here; I can't imagine anyone else voting this comment down.

Gas lighters

[TheWho79]

They've had about five years in the public eye (3 since Chatgpt tipped) to show us evidence of some grand threat or bad outocme by AI. The threat from software at this point is radically over stated. But boy, gas lighting the public, sure is profitable aye Dario? Nothing like scaring people into giving you a hundreds billion eh?

Newton Crosby: It's a machine, Schroeder. It doesn't get pissed off. It doesn't get happy, it doesn't get sad, it doesn't laugh at your jokes.
Newton Crosby, Ben Jabituya: [in uniso

what?

[Anonymous Coward]

The two purposes the Pentagon insisted on having the right to do - making autonomous killbots and doing mass surveillance of the US population. Those are not "bad outcomes" to you??

Re: what?

[St.Creed]

No, he's actively cheering for fascism and genocide. In that view, anything that makes it harder to kill the opposition is a bad thing.

He's basically one of the Twitter morons referred to.

Re:

[TheWho79]

That's nothing new, and nothing to do with the current crop of LLM's. We've had autonomous planes for years. We've had levels of software self driving killing machines (cars) for over a decade now. SSDD - absolutely nothing new with this stuff - just cleaner more capable software.

Re:

[CallMeTim]

You ignored the mass surveillance point. That's because even someone as clueless as you can see how that is enabled by LLMs in a way it wasn't before.

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[TheWho79]

Really, maybe Echelon was out before you were born. YOu've prolly heard of Flock - ring door bells - hundreds of exploited smart home devices. The ties between the top phone companies and the govt, go back well into the hard line era. Can llms make all that work better - surely - but whether that LLM is from anthropic, openai, meta, or downloaded from the local warez site, is a moot question. I now wonder - in the wake of the personal attacks on Altman - if Anthropic walked way from a deal with govt only t

Re:

[CallMeTim]

Yeah, highlight how old you are... that will make you sound less confused.

Pot = Kettle

[Local ID10T]

There are no white hats here.

A pox on both their houses.

rude awakening

[groobly]

Amodei suddenly discovers that he is not the only game in town.