ChatGPT boycott takes off after Sam Altman confirms new deal with the US military
While various soothsayers and political experts alike have been predicting we're on the cusp of World War III, President Donald Trump has just nudged us one step closer by announcing Operation Epic Fury.
2026 is already off to a concerning start thanks to Donald Trump assisting in February 28's Israeli–United States strikes on Iran. This comes in response to Iran's nuclear program, with the POTUS warning the country to surrender its nuclear arms or face the consequences.
Many correctly predicted that artificial intelligence would become a major weapon in the next big conflict, and coming just days after there were fears that Anthropic's big deal with the US military was about to collapse, it looks like the Department of Defense has a new top student.
Although The Wall Street Journal claims Anthropic's tech was used in Iran, just hours after Trump severed ties with the AI giant, OpenAI confirms it has struck a deal with the Pentagon to deploy across the Department of Defense's classified network.
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OpenAI has reiterated that there are three non-negotiables: its tech not being used for mass domestic surveillance, to direct autonomous weapons systems, or for high-stakes automated decisions.
Still, Windows Central confirms there's been vocal backlash to the announcement, with a growing number of critics attempting to boycott ChatGPT. Anthropic defended its decision not to bow to pressures from the government, saying that it couldn't reach an agreement on not being used for mass surveillance or automated weapons. Even though Altman reassured critics that OpenAI's models won't be used for mass surveillance, there are accusations that he's already been contradicted when one government official said its LLMs would be used for "all lawful means." In a post-9/11 world, the U.S. Patriot Act authorizes mass surveillance of American citizens in 'some' scenarios.
Altman defended this is an AMA thread, and when someone pointed out the above, the OpenAI CEO wrote: "We deliver a system (including choosing what models to deploy), and they can use it bound by lawful ways, including laws and directives around autonomous weapons and surveillance."
Altman says OpenAI will get to decide what systems are built, with the DoW apparently understanding "that there are [a] lot of risks we deeply understand."
A defiant Altman concluded: "We can, and will, build a lot of protections into that system, including for ensuring that the red lines are not crossed. The DoW is supportive of this approach."
Over on the ChatGPT Reddit, one post is captioned: "You're now training a war machine. Let's see proof of cancellation."
Having received over 31,000 upvotes at the time of writing, the comments are full of those who claim they're walking away from the popular chatbot's paid services.
Elsewhere, one person shared another post that read: "Time to cancel ChatGPT Plus after three Years. Anthropic got nuked for having ethics, and Sam Altman instantly swooped in for the Pentagon bag."
A third wrote: "Just deleted all my data, cancelled my subscription, and deleted the app. They probably aren’t deleting sh*t, but f**k these people. No ethics at all."
As noted by Windows Central, ChatGPT’s recent funding round closed with a whopping $730 billion valuation, but then again, when you have backers from some of the world's biggest companies like Amazon and NVIDIA, it's not hard to see why.
OpenAI is adamant that its deal with the Department of Defense "has more guardrails" than Anthropic's rejected one, but this doesn't appear to be enough for those angry villagers who are sharpening their pitchforks and storming firmly toward Altman.
UNILADTech has reached out to OpenAI for comment.