{"id":497674,"date":"2026-03-01T15:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T15:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/497674\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T15:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T15:03:15","slug":"5-big-takeaways-from-sam-altmans-openai-pentagon-deal-ama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/497674\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Big Takeaways From Sam Altman&#8217;s OpenAI-Pentagon Deal AMA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                      2026-03-01T01:36:49.680Z<\/p>\n<p>                              Share<\/p>\n<p>                            Copy link<br \/>\n                                  <a class=\"dropdown-item label-md\" data-email=\"\" href=\"mailto:?subject=5 big takeaways from Sam Altman's Saturday night AMA on OpenAI's Pentagon deal&amp;body=5%20big%20takeaways%20from%20Sam%20Altman's%20Saturday%20night%20AMA%20on%20OpenAI's%20Pentagon%20deal%0D%0A%0D%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Ftakeaways-sam-altman-openai-pentagon-deal-ask-me-anything-2026-3&amp;\" title=\"Email\" aria-label=\"Click to email\" data-utm-term=\"\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;click_url&quot;:&quot;mailto:?subject=5 big takeaways from Sam Altman's Saturday night AMA on OpenAI's Pentagon deal&amp;body=5%20big%20takeaways%20from%20Sam%20Altman's%20Saturday%20night%20AMA%20on%20OpenAI's%20Pentagon%20deal%0D%0A%0D%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Ftakeaways-sam-altman-openai-pentagon-deal-ask-me-anything-2026-3&amp;&quot;,&quot;share_type&quot;:&quot;email&quot;,&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;sharebar&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                            Email<br \/>\n                          <\/a>        <\/p>\n<p>                            Facebook<\/p>\n<p>                            WhatsApp<\/p>\n<p>                            X<\/p>\n<p>                            LinkedIn<\/p>\n<p>                            Bluesky<\/p>\n<p>                            Threads<\/p>\n<p>                            lighning bolt icon<br \/>\n                            An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.<\/p>\n<p>                            Impact Link<\/p>\n<p>                        Save<br \/>\n                        Saved<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"d-md-none app-button\" data-app-button=\"\" data-only-on=\"mobile\" data-component-type=\"app-button\" data-load-strategy=\"lazy\" title=\"Download the app\" aria-label=\"Click to download the app\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/insider-app.onelink.me\/4cpG\/?af_js_web=true&amp;af_ss_ver=2_3_0&amp;af_dp=insider%3A%2F%2Fbi%2Fpost%2Ftakeaways-sam-altman-openai-pentagon-deal-ask-me-anything-2026-3&amp;af_force_deeplink=true&amp;is_retargeting=true&amp;deep_link_value=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Ftakeaways-sam-altman-openai-pentagon-deal-ask-me-anything-2026-3&amp;pid=businessinsider&amp;c=post_page_share_bar_v2_smart_4.13.23\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;event&quot;:&quot;app_cta&quot;,&quot;click_text&quot;:&quot;read_in_app&quot;,&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;sharebar&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>                      Read in app<\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>              This story is available exclusively to Business Insider<br \/>\n                subscribers. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/subscription\" class=\"subscription-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Become an Insider<\/a><br \/>\n                and start reading now.<br \/>\n              Have an account? Log in.<\/p>\n<p>                    Sam Altman went on X on Saturday night and told users to ask him anything about OpenAI&#8217;s Pentagon deal.<br \/>\n                    Altman on Friday night announced that OpenAI will work with the Pentagon and let it use its AI models.<br \/>\n                    Here are five big takeaways from Altman&#8217;s AMA session.<\/p>\n<p>Sam Altman hopped onto X on Saturday night and told users to ask him anything about <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/openai-shares-contract-language-department-of-war-mass-surveillance-weapons-2026-2\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">OpenAI&#8217;s agreement<\/a> with the Pentagon.<\/p>\n<p>Altman, late on Friday, announced that his company had\u00a0<a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/openai-ai-deal-sam-altman-pentagon-defense-department-anthropic-2026-2\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">finalized a deal<\/a>\u00a0with the Department of Defense to use its AI models. OpenAI&#8217;s deal came after Anthropic refused an ultimatum regarding the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/dario-amodei-pentagon-free-speech-patriots-american-values-2026-2\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">terms of use<\/a> of its frontier model, Claude, for deployment in mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.<\/p>\n<p>Here are five big takeaways from Altman&#8217;s AMA.<\/p>\n<p>                          1. The OpenAI-Pentagon deal was &#8216;rushed,&#8217; and Altman knows the &#8216;optics&#8217; don&#8217;t look good<\/p>\n<p>The Pentagon deal was done quickly in &#8220;an attempt to de-escalate the situation,&#8221; Altman wrote on X.<\/p>\n<p>He added in a separate post that the deal had been &#8220;rushed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Still, the &#8220;optics don&#8217;t look good&#8221; for OpenAI, he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If we are right and this does lead to a de-escalation between the DoW and the industry, we will look like geniuses, and a company that took on a lot of pain to do things to help the industry,&#8221; he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If not, we will continue to be characterized as rushed and uncareful,&#8221; he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Altman added that he sees &#8220;promising signs&#8221; for where this will all land for OpenAI.<\/p>\n<p>                          2. OpenAI took the Pentagon deal because it &#8216;got comfortable&#8217; with the &#8216;contract language&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Altman was asked why the Department of Defense went with OpenAI over Anthropic. He said he wouldn&#8217;t speak for his competitor, but did speculate on why OpenAI got the contract inked first.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;First, I saw reporting that they were extremely close on a deal, and for much of the time both sides really wanted to reach one,&#8221; Altman wrote. &#8220;I have seen what happens in tense negotiations when things get stressed and deteriorate super fast, and I could believe that was a large part of what happened here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He added that OpenAI and the Department of Defense &#8220;got comfortable with the contractual language&#8221; as well.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think Anthropic may have wanted more operational control than we did,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>                          3. OpenAI has 3 redlines, but it&#8217;s open to changing them as tech evolves<\/p>\n<p>Altman said that <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/openai-shares-contract-language-department-of-war-mass-surveillance-weapons-2026-2\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">OpenAI has &#8220;three redlines.&#8221;<\/a> But those redlines could change \u2014 and there could be more of them put in place \u2014 as the technology evolves, and &#8220;new risks&#8221; come into play.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But a really important point: we are not elected. We have a democratic process where we do elect our leaders,&#8221; Altman wrote. &#8220;We have expertise with the technology and understand its limitations, but I think you should be terrified of a private company deciding on what is and isn&#8217;t ethical in the most important areas.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Seems fine for us to decide how ChatGPT should respond to a controversial question,&#8221; he added. &#8220;But I really don&#8217;t want us to decide what to do if a nuke is coming towards the US.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>                          4. Altman says Anthropic is on a &#8216;dangerous&#8217; path<\/p>\n<p>Altman said OpenAI had been talking to the Department of Defense for &#8220;many months&#8221; about non-classified work, before &#8220;things shifted into high gear on the classified side.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We found the DoW to be flexible on what we needed, and we want to support them in their very important mission,&#8221; he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think the current path things are on is dangerous for Anthropic, healthy competition, and the US,&#8221; Altman wrote on X as well. &#8220;We negotiated to make sure similar terms would be offered to all other AI labs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He also asked for &#8220;some empathy&#8221; for the Department of Defense, given its &#8220;extremely important mission.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And, in Altman&#8217;s words:<\/p>\n<p>Our industry tells them &#8220;The technology we are building is going to be the high order bit in geopolitical conflict. China is rushing ahead. You are very behind.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And then we say<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But we won&#8217;t help you, and we think you are kind of evil.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;d react great in that situation.<\/p>\n<p>I do not believe unelected leaders of private companies should have as much power as our democratically elected government. But I do think we need to help them.<\/p>\n<p>                          5. Altman says AI can help counter big security threats on two fronts<\/p>\n<p>Altman says AI could come in useful on two fronts. Firstly, the US&#8217;s &#8220;ability to defend against major cyber attacks,&#8221; particularly, an attack that might take down the country&#8217;s electrical grid.<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, biosecurity is an area where AI could help.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I do not think we are currently set up well enough to detect and respond to a novel pandemic threat,&#8221; Altman said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026-03-01T01:36:49.680Z Share Copy link Email Facebook WhatsApp X LinkedIn Bluesky Threads lighning bolt icon An icon in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-497674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}