Sam Altman admits OpenAI can’t control Pentagon’s use of AI
OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, told employees on Tuesday that his company does not control how the Pentagon uses their artificial intelligence products in military operations.Altman’s claims on OpenAI’s lack of input come amid increased scrutiny of how the military uses AI in war and ethics concerns from AI workers over how their technology will be deployed.“You do not get to make operational decisions,” Altman told employees, according to reports by Bloomberg and CNBC.“So maybe you think the Iran strike was good and the Venezuela invasion was bad.You don’t get to weigh in on that,” Altman reportedly said.
The AI industry has been mired in heated discussions and acrimonious negotiations in recent weeks as the Pentagon has demanded AI companies remove safety guardrails on their models to allow a broader range of military applications,AI-enabled systems have reportedly already been used in the US military’s operation to seize Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and in targeting decisions in its war against Iran,Anthropic, OpenAI’s rival and maker of the Claude chatbot, last week refused a deal with the Pentagon over concerns its model could be used for domestic mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons,Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, declared the company a “supply-chain risk” as a result, a designation never used before against a US company and one that could cause significant financial harm if formally enacted,On the same day that Hegseth vowed punitive measures against Anthropic, the Pentagon also announced a deal with OpenAI that was seemingly intended to replace the use of Claude in military applications.
The timing of the deal and concerns that OpenAI had agreed to cross ethical lines that Anthropic refused led to both public and internal employee backlash against OpenAI.Altman and OpenAI have since tried to insist that its technology will be used legally and conduct damage control, with Altman admitting that the deal was rushed out and made the company look “opportunistic and sloppy”.Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, lambasted Altman as “mendacious” in a memo to employees on Wednesday and accused Altman of giving “dictator-style praise to Trump” , the Information reported.“We’ve actually held our red lines with integrity rather than colluding with them to produce ‘safety theater’ for the benefit of employees (which, I absolutely swear to you, is what literally everyone at [the Pentagon], Palantir, our political consultants, etc, assumed was the problem we were trying to solve),” Amodei reportedly wrote.He also took aim at the Pentagon and Donald Trump.
“The real reasons [the Pentagon] and the Trump admin do not like us is that we haven’t donated to Trump (while OpenAI/Greg have donated a lot),” he wrote, referring to Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, who gave a Pac supporting Trump $25m in conjunction with his wife.
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Retailers want ‘delightfully human’ AI to do your shopping, but will the chatbots go rogue?
Major retailers say it won’t be long before sophisticated AI “assistants” plan your meals, organise your parties and do your shopping.But companies, many that are already struggling with their more primitive AI chatbots, will have to balance making the newer, “agentic” bots relatable without them going rogue.AI chatbots were in the news recently when Woolworths reined in its virtual shopping assistant, Olive, after the company’s attempt to have the robot relate to customers on a human level backfired.Customers reported feeling annoyed rather than soothed when Olive told them about its “relatives” over the phone.Sign up: AU Breaking News emailAs one complained on Reddit: “I’m already pissed that I have to call and now I’ve got some robot babbling to me on the phone? Wtf Woolies?”While Woolworths has said it will dial down Olive’s quirky personality, the incident – and further testing by Guardian Australia of a range of retailers’ chatbots – shows the technology still has teething problems
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England fall just short against India in epic T20 World Cup semi-final – as it happened
That was modest of Samson, but if anyone else was going to pip him to the match award, it should have been Axar Patel. His fielding was phenomenal, first when he caught Harry Brook in the deep, running back, and then when, uncredited on the scorecard, he got an inspired assist for the catch by Dube that got rid of the tenacious Jacks. In a game of 499 runs, the winner is the team that fielded better.Never mind the players – I am now a spent force, so I’m going to collapse in a heap. Simon Burnton’s match report will be with you shortly
Wales can fly against Ireland if they dump their Six Nations baggage
It’s unlikely Steve Tandy got to this point in his coaching career without ever alluding to the joy of playing with no baggage. Between club and country over the years he must have reminded his players that the lads down the corridor would be bearing the load, so that’s one thing less to worry about. And with that realisation comes a certain lightness. We’re not talking about the freedom of skipping around the park, picking out faces in the crowd and drinking in the atmosphere of a Six Nations tie, rather getting some value from being spared the burden of expectation.For Wales this has come at a price
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