Daijiworld Media Network - Washington

Washington, Feb 28: OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman announced on Saturday that the company has reached an agreement with the US Department of War to deploy its AI models within the authority’s classified network. The move comes amid President Donald Trump’s ban on federal use of Anthropic’s AI systems.

In a post on X, Altman highlighted that the Department of War showed “deep respect for safety” and agreed to OpenAI’s principles, including prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and ensuring human oversight over the use of force, even for autonomous weapons. Technical safeguards and cloud-based systems will ensure models operate as intended within classified environments.

Altman emphasized that OpenAI urged the department to extend similar terms to all AI companies, advocating de-escalation from legal conflicts to cooperative agreements.

In parallel, OpenAI announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Amazon, under which the e-commerce giant will invest $50 billion, starting with $15 billion upfront. The collaboration will develop a Stateful Runtime Environment leveraging OpenAI’s models, offered through Amazon Bedrock, enabling AI systems to access compute, memory, and identity resources seamlessly.

The developments come amid rising tensions in Silicon Valley over federal AI policies, with Elon Musk supporting the Trump administration’s stance, while Altman expressed trust in Anthropic’s safety intentions.