OpenAI’s Pentagon deal raises new questions about AI and mass surveillance

On Friday, just hours after publicly backing rival Anthropic for standing firm against the Pentagon’s demands, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced his company had struck its own deal with the Department of Defense. The move came shortly after the U.S. government had taken the highly unusual step of designating Anthropic a “supply-chain risk.”

OpenAI’s decision drew criticism from many AI researchers and tech policy experts, even though OpenAI said it had achieved limitations in its agreement...