{"id":9136,"date":"2026-03-03T15:44:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T15:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/sam-altman-admits-huge-mistake\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T15:44:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T15:44:44","slug":"sam-altman-admits-huge-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/sam-altman-admits-huge-mistake\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Altman Is Realizing He Made a Gigantic Mistake"},"content":{"rendered":"
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman went into full damage control mode<\/a> over the weekend. A day before the United States attacked Iran, the embattled CEO announced<\/a> that the company had signed a new agreement with the Pentagon over how its AI models could be used \u2014 and the blowback is clearly impacting the company\u2019s bottom line, because Altman is sounding deeply defensive.<\/p>\n

Many users saw the military terms move as an attempt to swoop in and yank a multibillion-dollar government contract from the clutches of its rival, Anthropic. Last week, Anthropic\u2019s CEO Dario Amodei refused to give in to the Department of Defense\u2019s demands, drawing a line in the sand<\/a> and insisting that its AI models may not be used for autonomous killing machines or mass surveillance of Americans, a decision lauded by many users of its chatbot Claude.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the genuineness of Amodei\u2019s continued assurances \u2014 there are plenty of reasons not to take billionaire CEOs by their word \u2014 OpenAI effectively handed Anthropic a major PR victory. The shifting dynamic triggered a mass exodus from OpenAI\u2019s ecosystem, with uninstall rates of OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT spiking 295 percent day-over-day<\/a> on Saturday, the day after OpenAI announced its deal with the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

Now, Altman is continuing his apology tour, conceding in a lengthy tweet<\/a> on Monday evening that OpenAI \u201cshouldn\u2019t have rushed\u201d its Department of Defense deal.<\/p>\n

After what many saw as OpenAI giving in to the Pentagon\u2019s wishes, Altman claimed that OpenAI would be altering the terms of the deal after the fact \u2014 a bizarre twist that likely won\u2019t sit well with Trump\u2019s military or the company\u2019s already disillusioned customers.<\/p>\n

Altman claimed that the company would \u201camend our deal\u201d to add the prohibition of \u201cdeliberate tracking, surveillance, or monitoring of US persons or nationals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many things the technology just isn\u2019t ready for, and many areas we don\u2019t yet understand the tradeoffs required for safety,\u201d the CEO wrote. \u201cWe will work through these, slowly, with the [Department of War], with technical safeguards and other methods.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to note that Altman\u2019s tweet makes no mention of autonomous AI-enabled weapon systems, the other key issue that led to the rift between Anthropic and the Department of Defense.<\/p>\n

Whether that means such weapon systems are on the table or not for OpenAI remains unclear, but given Altman\u2019s language, it\u2019s certainly not out of the question.<\/p>\n

It also remains unclear whether the Defense Department will agree to these revised terms or whether it had originally agreed to accommodate OpenAI\u2019s original terms and not Anthropic\u2019s, as CNBC <\/em>points out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the very least, Altman admitted the optics of his eleventh-hour amendment were abysmal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were genuinely trying to de-escalate things and avoid a much worse outcome, but I think it just looked opportunistic and sloppy,\u201d he wrote. \u201cGood learning experience for me as we face higher-stakes decisions in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Altman also called on the government not to designate Anthropic a supply chain risk to national security. After Anthropic refused to sign the deal with the Pentagon, defense secretary Pete Hegseth announced<\/a> on February 27 that \u201ceffective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir true objective is unmistakable: to seize veto power over the operational decisions of the United States military,\u201d Hegseth fumed. \u201cThat is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether Altman\u2019s latest mea culpa will meaningfully address OpenAI\u2019s growing PR crisis is dubious at best. For many users, the damage has already been done. Besides, it\u2019s not a one-horse race, with ChatGPT increasingly lagging behind every other leading AI company on LLM leaderboards.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are p*ssed and there are better products,\u201d one Reddit user wrote<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s a recipe for disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Anthropic\u2019s Amodei may not be a knight in shining armor, either. As\u00a0the\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0reported<\/a> over the weekend, the Department of Defense selected targets in Iran using Anthropic\u2019s Claude chatbot<\/a>, highlighting the AI company\u2019s preexisting ties with the military.<\/p>\n

In other words, while Amodei told CBS News<\/em> in a carefully-timed interview on Sunday<\/a> that mass surveillance and autonomous weapons are the \u201ctwo red lines\u201d the company had since \u201cfrom Day One,\u201d the company still signed a prior deal with the Pentagon that let it use Claude to execute deadly attacks.<\/p>\n

More on the contract:<\/strong> Sam Altman in Damage Control Mode as ChatGPT Users Are Mass Cancelling Subscriptions Because OpenAI Is \u201cTraining a War Machine\u201d<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The post Sam Altman Is Realizing He Made a Gigantic Mistake<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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