The heated rivalry between two San Francisco-based artificial intelligence companies has found its way onto the city\u2019s concrete.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unknown San Franciscans have taken to the sidewalks outside the headquarters of AI firms Anthropic and OpenAI to praise Anthropic for its stance in a standoff with the Pentagon, and to lambast OpenAI for striking a deal with the defense secretary.<\/p>\n
Chalk messages first appeared outside Anthropic\u2019s downtown headquarters<\/a> at Howard and First streets on Friday morning defending the company\u2019s \u201ccourage\u201d in its fight against the Pentagon, which sought expanded use of its AI technology for military purposes. The chalk was erased by the afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n But by Friday evening, as it became clear that Anthropic had lost its government deal by insisting on protections while its rival Open AI swooped in to pen an agreement, the chalk warriors were back<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n This time, American flags, anti-spying messages<\/a>, and entreaties to \u201cdo the right thing\u201d wrapped around OpenAI\u2019s headquarters on Third Street in Mission Bay. A red line of chalk appeared to encircle the entire building, according to video<\/a> of the scene, a reference to the \u201cred line\u201d of not using AI technology for immoral purposes, like mass surveillance or killing.<\/p>\n The chalk fairies paid a visit to the OAI offices last night. They left a giant “red line” perimeter around the entirety of the OAI building as well as some other messages for technical staff to read on their morning commute. More examples below \ud83e\uddf5 pic.twitter.com\/xxrllOzZ7z<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Brangus\ud83d\udd0d\u23f9\ufe0f (@RatOrthodox) March 1, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cShow the contract,\u201d read one message referring to the deal so quickly penned Friday between Open AI and the government. \u201cTake a stand for civil liberty,\u201d read another. The X user who captured photos of the chalk shared<\/a> one of city workers resting in a truck watching those scrawling on the sidewalk. They were presumably called out to wash the chalk away.\u00a0<\/p>\n Anthropic and OpenAI, the firms behind the chatbots Claude (the No. 1 free app on the iPhone store) and ChatGPT (the No. 2), are at the heart of the brewing feud. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week issued an ultimatum<\/a> for Anthropic to loosen the terms of its contract with the Pentagon and gave the firm a deadline<\/a> of Friday, 5:01 p.m. to do so.<\/p>\n At one point someone at oai presumably called the city to wash the chalk, so they just stayed up all night and did it again. Gotta love protesters with enough respect for public property that they use chalk instead of spray paint pic.twitter.com\/xYr39fHYSa<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Brangus\ud83d\udd0d\u23f9\ufe0f (@RatOrthodox) March 1, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Hegseth sought an exemption from Anthropic\u2019s stance in its usage policy<\/a> prohibiting its technology for use in surveillance or weapons development. The firm wanted a guarantee he would not use it for \u201cmass domestic surveillance\u201d on Americans or \u201cfully autonomous weapons.\u201d Hegseth refused.<\/p>\n Anthropic, in turn, rebuffed<\/a> him on Thursday. President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon ordered federal agencies to stop using Anthropic technology<\/a> and warned of \u201cmajor\u201d consequences. The Friday deadline lapsed. Minutes later, Hegseth officially designated<\/a> the firm a \u201csupply-chain risk.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Then, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tweeted<\/a> he had secured his own deal with the Pentagon<\/a>. \u201cTonight, we reached an agreement with the Department of War to deploy our models in their classified network,\u201d Altman wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n It was a stunning bit of deal-making for Silicon Valley observers. From the outside, Altman appeared to be on rival Anthropic\u2019s side: He wrote in a Thursday memo<\/a> to staff that he would help \u201cde-escalate\u201d the feud with the defense department even as he sought his own deal, and wrote that OpenAI shared the same \u201cred lines\u201d as Anthropic regarding use of AI for surveillance and autonomous weapons. He told CNBC<\/a> Friday about Anthropic: \u201cI mostly trust them as a company.\u201d<\/p>\n His announcement Friday reflected those shared \u201cred lines\u201d but did not contain specifics of the contract. \u201cTwo of our most important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems,\u201d he wrote. The Department of Defense, he wrote, \u201cagrees with these principles, reflects them in law and policy, and we put them into our agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n The sidewalk messages doubt it. The chalk seemed to appear outside OpenAI\u2019s headquarters shortly after Altman\u2019s Friday evening announcement and references to George Orwell\u2019s \u201c1984\u201d abounded, and messages pleading with OpenAI: \u201cDon\u2019t help the government spy on Americans\u201d or \u201cDo no evil,\u201d a reference to the former Google motto.<\/p>\n Another warned: \u201cHistory is watching.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t