A growing number of ChatGPT users are switching to other AI chatbots after OpenAI signed a deal with the US Department of War.
The deal with the Pentagon, announced on Friday, comes after the Trump administration sought to terminate a contract with Anthropic after the AI startup raised concerns about its products being used for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said its company “cannot in good conscience accede to [the department’s] request”, adding that the government was threatening to designate Anthropic a “supply chain risk” – a label reserved for US adversaries that has never been applied to a US company.
“The Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a DISASTROUS MISTAKE trying to STRONG-ARM the Department of War, and force them to obey their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution,” President Donald Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social on Friday.
Anthropic’s chatbot Claude has since jumped to the top of Apple’s charts for free apps, overtaking OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said his company’s deal with the Pentagon would allow the US military to use its artificial intelligence tools within its classified systems, but claimed that the Department of War had a “deep respect for safety” and would abide by safeguards to prevent misuse of the technology.
“Two 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,” he wrote in a statement posted to X.
“The DoW agrees with these principles, reflects them in law and policy, and we put them into our agreement.”
His announcement appeared to add momentum to a movement to boycott ChatGPT, with one of the top posts on the 11 million-member r/ChatGPT community on Reddit this week calling for users to cancel their subscriptions.
“OpenAI just made a deal with a devil,” the post stated. “Sam Altman decided defense money was more important than every principle the company was founded on.”
The post also urged users to switch to Claude, noting that all data and projects can be exported to the rival chatbot.
The Independent has reached out to OpenAI for comment.
