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The artificial intelligence company OpenAI recently shifted its stance on the military’s use of its tools, and federal disclosures show that its lobbyists engaged the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security last year.
Lobbyists for OpenAI descended on the Pentagon last year amid heightened scrutiny of artificial intelligence and its role in national security and defense. Federal disclosures filed this January show thatlobbied the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security in the third quarter of 2023, spending a total of $260,000. The lobbying is further evidence of a shift in the company’s attitude towards the military’s use of its technology. OpenAI previously forbade users from wielding its tools for “military and warfare” purposes but recently removed the ban in light of DoD opportunities it is reportedly pursuing., through outside lobbying firms, targeted issues related to AI in the National Defense Authorization Act , according to disclosures from the same period which show these lobbyists spent a total of $280,000. Neither OpenAI nor Anthropic had enlisted U.S. lobbyists prior to 2023, when their respective CEOsin AI lobbying from hundreds of companies across multiple industries, alongside the introduction of several pieces of AI legislation and a White House executive order. According to filings, OpenAI hired top K Street firms DLA Piper and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in the fourth quarter, in addition to in-house lobbyist Chan Park, who hadworked for OpenAI’s investor Microsoft as its senior director of congressional affairs. OpenAI job listings show that it is currently hiring ato “drive new business within the US Federal Government to support strategic initiatives” and “begin forming relationships with federal agencies and introducing them to OpenAI products.” The filings show Anthropic tapped firms Aquia Group and Tower 19 at the start of last year, both of whom also lobbied for Amazon, which stands to become Anthropic’s OpenAI did not respond to questions about the nature of its lobbying or the topics its lobbyists raised with defense agencies. Its disclosure states that in addition to the DoD and DHS, in-house lobbyist Park engaged the White House and Congress, Department of State, Department of Commerce, Department of Energy and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.in an email that the NDAA, which its outside lobbyist Aquia Group targeted, “has become an omnibus vehicle for funding a variety of non-defense related programs” that have been “policy priorities of Anthropic for years.” On Tuesday, Anthropic co-founder and policy head, Jack Clark,, a pilot program established in 2021 by the NDAA. Led by the National Science Foundation, the program aims to connect U.S. researchers with public and private resources for safely studying and scaling AI. OpenAI appears to be following a traditional playbook that many tech giants have employed. But government watchdog groups argue that more transparency is needed to expose how the industry’s relationship with agencies and lawmakers is impacting federal spending and decision making. “Our research has shown that tech companies and executives frequently cozy up to the government to seek federal investment for their industries or try to derail regulation that could hurt their bottom line,” Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project, told. “These efforts have historically taken place behind closed doors and only come to light much later after the fact — if at all.”about its desire to adopt generative AI systems that can support a number of tasks, from administration to combat operations, questions have remained as to whether companies like OpenAI will make their tools available for military applications.uses that “design, market, help distribute or utilize weapons, explosives, dangerous materials or other systems designed to cause harm to or loss of human life.” Spokesperson Aldous toldthat it “prohibits the use of our technology for applications related to weapons or battlefield management,” and said Anthropic does not have defense contracts, nor is it pursuing them. cybersecurity challenge“Because we previously had what was essentially a blanket prohibition on military, many people thought that would prohibit many of these use cases, which people think are very much aligned with what we want to see in the world,” Anna Makanju, OpenAI’s vice president of global affairs, subsequently said in an interview withat the World Economic Forum last month. Makanju added that it had begun talks with the DoD on implementing its technology for cybersecurity and to “assist with preventing veteran suicide,” saying that OpenAI is currently “focused on United States national security agencies.” OpenAI did not respond to questions about specific opportunities it might be exploring and it does not appear to have any publicly listed government contracts.
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