300+ Google, 60+ OpenAI Staff Back Anthropic
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- Anthropic has reached a stalemate with the Department of War over unrestricted AI access, with a Friday afternoon compliance deadline approaching as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened to declare the company a "supply chain risk" or invoke the Defense Production Act.
- More than 300 Google employees and over 60 OpenAI employees signed an open letter urging their companies to support Anthropic and refuse the Pentagon's "unilateral" military use demands, accusing the military of trying to "divide each company with fear that the other will give in."
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei held firm in a Thursday statement, saying "we cannot in good conscience accede to their request" and noting the contradictory nature of being labeled both a security risk and essential to national security.
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told CNBC he doesn't "personally think the Pentagon should be threatening DPA against these companies," and an OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the company shares Anthropic's red lines against autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.
- Google DeepMind Chief Scientist Jeff Dean publicly opposed government mass surveillance as a Fourth Amendment violation with a "chilling effect on freedom of expression," though Google DeepMind has not formally addressed the conflict.
- The Department of War can already use X's Grok, Google's Gemini, and OpenAI's ChatGPT for unclassified tasks and is negotiating with Google and OpenAI to bring their technology into classified work, per Axios.
Why it matters: This is a cross-company employee mobilization in the AI industry's standoff with the Pentagon. With Anthropic facing a Friday deadline and DPA threats, the letter's 'put aside their differences' appeal turns the military's divide-and-conquer strategy into a collective red line—making it politically harder for Google or OpenAI to quietly accept military terms their own staff have publicly opposed.
