Google and OpenAI employees support Anthropic’s Department of Defense position in open letter

Anthropic has entered a standoff with the U.S. Department of the Army over the military’s request for unrestricted access to the AI ​​company’s technology. But as the Pentagon’s Friday afternoon compliance deadline for Anthropic approaches, more than 300 Google employees and more than 60 OpenAI employees have signed an open letter urging their leaders to stand behind Anthropic and reject its unilateral use.

Specifically, Anthropic took a stand against the use of AI in domestic mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. The signatories of the open letter seek to encourage employers to “put aside our differences and come together” to uphold the boundaries advocated by Anthropic.

“They are trying to divide each company out of fear that the other will give in,” the letter said. “That strategy only works if none of us know the other countries’ positions.”

The letter specifically asks Google and OpenAI executives to uphold Anthropic’s red lines against mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. “We hope our nation’s leaders will put aside their differences and come together to continue rejecting the Department of the Army’s current demands.”

Leaders of both companies have not yet formally responded to the letter. TechCrunch has reached out to Google and OpenAI for comment.

However, unofficial statements suggest that both companies are sympathetic to Anthropic on this matter. “Personally, I don’t think the Department of Defense should threaten DPA against these companies,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in an interview with CNBC on Friday morning. According to a CNN reporter, an OpenAI spokesperson confirmed that the company shares Anthropic’s red lines against autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.

Google DeepMind has not officially addressed the dispute, but its lead researcher, Jeff Dean, has likely spoken out in his own capacity to express opposition to mass government surveillance.

“Mass surveillance violates the Fourth Amendment and has a chilling effect on free expression,” Dean wrote to X. “Surveillance systems are susceptible to abuse for political or discriminatory purposes.”

According to the Axios report, the military is currently able to use X’s Grok, Google’s Gemini, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT for unclassified operations, and is in talks with Google and OpenAI to make the technology available for classified operations.

Although Anthropic has an existing partnership with the Department of Defense, the company continues to hold firm to its boundaries of not using its AI for domestic mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei that if the company did not make concessions, the Pentagon would declare Anthropic a “supply chain risk” or invoke the Defense Production Act (DPA) to force the company into military compliance.

In a statement Thursday, Amodei stood by his company’s position. “These latter two threats are inherently contradictory; one classifies us as a security risk, and the other classifies Claude as essential to national security,” the statement reads. “In any case, these threats do not change our position. We cannot in good conscience comply with their demands.”