OpenAI announces weapons company partnership to provide AI tech to military

Partnership marks increasing Silicon Valley openness towards working with defense partners

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and high-tech defense startup Anduril Industries will collaborate to develop artificial intelligence-inflected technologies for military applications, the companies announced.

“U.S. and allied forces face a rapidly evolving set of aerial threats from both emerging unmanned systems and legacy manned platforms that can wreak havoc, damage infrastructure and take lives,” the companies wrote in a Wednesday statement.

“The Anduril and OpenAI strategic partnership will focus on improving the nation’s counter-unmanned aircraft systems (CUAS) and their ability to detect, assess and respond to potentially lethal aerial threats in real-time.”

The companies framed the alliance as a way to secure American technical supremacy during a “pivotal moment” in the AI race against China. They did not disclose financial terms.

The partnership brings together the world’s most valuable AI company, and Anduril, one of the most prominent firms in a new crop of defense startups. It makes drones, military software, and sensor towers that detect incoming drones.

OpenAI had previously barred its technology from military use but changed its guidelines in January to allow some collaborations. OpenAi toldThe Wall Street Journal in a statement the technology developed with Anduril will only be used in defensive applications, and CEO Sam Altman said his company seeks to “ensure the technology upholds democratic values.”

The deal also signals the tech world’s growing interest in working with the Pentagon. While the military-industrial complex was highly involved historically in the development of the internet and computer technology, and tech giants have large computing contracts with defense agencies, Silicon Valley majors and startups alike had previously shown a wariness to work directly with the military on battlefield technology.

And to a degree, it remains controversial inside the tech world. In 2018, Google employees were highly critical of Project Maven, an effort to help the Pentagon identify people in drone videos, and the tech company declined to continue the partnership the following year. Earlier this year, scores of Google workers were fired after employees staged sit-ins in offices in New York and California to protest the company’s cloud contract with Israel amid the ongoing war in Gaza.

Partnership will focus on drone-defense systems (AP)

AI seems to have changed the calculus.

In November, OpenAI competitor Anthropic announced it would partner with Amazon and Palantir to give AI algorithms to the Defense Department.

The deals also highlight the increasing nexus between conservative politics, big tech, and military technology.

Palmer Lucky, co-founder of Anduril, was an early, vocal supporter of Donald Trump in the tech world, and is close with Elon Musk.

Musk co-founded OpenAI, but stepped away in 2018 and founded an AI lab of his own. Musk has also publicly feuded with Altman and sued OpenAI, and has become one of Donald Trump’s most influential and public allies, overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency advisory commission aimed at directing trillions in government spending.

Vice-president-elect JD Vance, meanwhile, is a protege of investor Peter Thiel, who co-founded Palantir, another of the companies involved in military AI.