Altman said no to military AI – then signed Pentagon deal

Sam Altman publicly stated OpenAI would not allow its AI to be used for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons — then signed a $200M Pentagon deal the same day with no such protections. The piece argues Altman capitulated to DoD demands that Anthropic's Dario Amodei refused, giving the military broad 'any lawful use' rights. Meanwhile, Anthropic's revenue has surged to a $20B run rate following its public stand, and it now leads enterprise LLM spend at 40% vs OpenAI's 27%. The author contends Altman's deal will damage OpenAI's reputation and enterprise market share long-term, while handing Anthropic a lasting competitive advantage.