Google and OpenAI employees urge firms to back Anthropic against Pentagon demands
Feb 28th 2026
Employees at Google and OpenAI have signed an open letter urging company leaders to back Anthropic’s refusal to let the Pentagon use its AI for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons as the Defense Department threatens forced compliance.
- More than 300 Google employees and over 60 OpenAI employees signed an open letter asking their bosses to support Anthropic’s restrictions on military use of its AI.
- Anthropic refuses Pentagon requests for unrestricted access, specifically opposing use for domestic mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei the Pentagon could label the company a supply chain risk or invoke the Defense Production Act to force compliance.
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he does not think the Pentagon should threaten DPA enforcement, and an OpenAI spokesperson said the company shares Anthropic’s red lines.
- Jeff Dean of Google expressed personal opposition to mass surveillance on X, but Google and OpenAI have not issued formal responses to the open letter.
- The military already uses Grok, Gemini, and ChatGPT for unclassified tasks and is negotiating with Google and OpenAI for classified work.