Anthropic co-founder Daniela Amodei
Her comments came during an interview with Walter Isaacson for his podcast “The Builders,” according to an excerpt the New York Post obtained. Daniela said when asked about OpenAI stepping in. Pentagon officials argued that defense contractors should allow their technology for “all lawful uses” and that private companies should not determine military operations. It secured a favourable ruling in California in August, before a separate federal appeals court in Washington upheld a Pentagon exclusion the following month, according to the report.
Anthropic president Daniela Amodei has questioned OpenAI ’s Pentagon agreement. Speaking alongside her brother, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, she suggested the rival company may have acted opportunistically when it reached a deal after Anthropic disputed the US government’s military use of AI. “Was this a really principled stand that another technology company took based on their own ethics, or was this an opportunistic moment? The criticism centers on whether OpenAI’s agreement preserved meaningful safeguards after Anthropic refused to remove restrictions on mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous lethal weapons. The dispute began in February, when Anthropic declined to abandon those restrictions on its AI models. US President Donald Trump subsequently directed federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s products. The Pentagon also designated the company a supply-chain risk and restricted its role in defense work. OpenAI later reached its own agreement with the Pentagon. The company has maintained that the deal includes explicit restrictions against mass domestic surveillance, directing autonomous weapons systems and making high-stakes automated decisions. Anthropic challenged the administration’s actions in US court.