Sam Altman Faces Backlash Over Pentagon Deal

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is facing public and industry backlash after announcing a deal with the Pentagon last week (Feb. 27–28) to deploy OpenAI models on a classified Department of War network following rival Anthropic's refusal of the government's terms. The agreement drew criticism from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Pentagon officials and former OpenAI staff, and triggered a surge in downloads for Anthropic's Claude, raising ethical and reputational concerns.