OpenAI and Google workers are warning their corporations to not hand over AI to the Pentagon with out safeguards.
A rising variety of present and former workers at OpenAI and Google have signed a joint petition opposing the usage of their corporations’ AI instruments for mass surveillance use and weapons that can kill with out human oversight.
The net petition, titled “We Will Not Be Divided,” invitations present and former workers from each corporations to oppose what they see as harmful instructions for AI deployment. Signers have to be verified and should select to stay nameless.
Greater than 220 workers from Google and OpenAI have signed the petition as of Friday — 176 from Google and 47 from OpenAI.
Google has about 187,000 workers globally as of mid-2025, whereas OpenAI’s head rely runs into the hundreds.
The petition mentioned that the Division of Struggle is threatening to invoke the Protection Manufacturing Act to force Anthropic to offer its AI mannequin to the navy and “tailor its mannequin to the navy’s wants,” doubtlessly labeling the corporate a “provide chain threat” if it refuses.
“The Pentagon is negotiating with Google and OpenAI to attempt to get them to comply with what Anthropic has refused,” the petition added.
The petition comes after Axios reported on Tuesday that Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth had set a deadline for Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to offer the US navy sweeping entry to the corporate’s AI mannequin, warning of potential penalties if it declined.
“The one purpose we’re nonetheless speaking to those individuals is we want them and we want them now,” a Protection official instructed Axios. “The issue for these guys is they’re that good.”
Throughout a January go to to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Hegseth described AI improvement as a “wartime arms race” and urged quicker deployment of cutting-edge fashions for navy use.
“We won’t make use of AI fashions that will not will let you combat wars,” Hegseth mentioned.
Anthropic mentioned in a blog post on Thursday that it might not permit its expertise for use to surveil People at scale or energy weapons that act with out human oversight.
“They’re attempting to divide every firm with worry that the opposite will give in,” the petition mentioned, referring to the Division of Struggle.
“That technique solely works if none of us know the place the others stand. This letter serves to create shared understanding and solidarity within the face of this strain from the Division of Struggle,” it added.
“We hope our leaders will put apart their variations and stand collectively to proceed to refuse the Division of Struggle’s present calls for for permission to make use of our fashions for home mass surveillance and autonomously killing individuals with out human oversight.”
‘Completely in uncharted territory’
Consultants instructed Enterprise Insider in a report on Thursday that threatening to make use of emergency nationwide safety powers to strain a personal AI firm marks a brand new and largely untested method.
“We’re completely in uncharted territory,” Dean Ball, an ex-senior coverage advisor for the White Home Workplace of Science and Know-how Coverage and fellow for the Basis for American Innovation, instructed Enterprise Insider.
“What are the stakes for Anthropic? I imply, Anthropic might be quasi-nationalized, or they might be pushed out of enterprise,” Ball mentioned. “The stakes are large for them.”
Ball mentioned the episode may ship a broader sign throughout the tech trade that “doing enterprise with the federal government is extraordinarily harmful.”
“It is an enormous threat,” he added.
