OpenAI Partners with Anduril to Supply US Military with AI

OpenAImaker of ChatGPT and one of the most prominent artificial intelligence companies in the world, said today it has entered into a partnership with Anduril, a defense startup that makes missiles, drones, and software for the United States military. It marks the latest in a series of similar announcements made recently by major technology companies in Silicon Valley, which have warmed to building closer ties with the defense industry.

“OpenAI builds AI to benefit as many people as possible, and supports US-led efforts to ensure that technology upholds democratic values,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, in a statement on Wednesday.

OpenAI’s AI models will be used to develop systems used to protect air, said Brian Schimpf, founder and CEO of Anduril, in a statement. “Together, we are committed to developing responsible solutions that enable military and intelligence operators to make faster, more accurate decisions in stressful situations,” he said.

OpenAI’s technology will be used to “assess drone threats quickly and accurately, giving operators the information they need to make better decisions while staying out of harm’s way,” said a former OpenAI employee who left the company earlier this year and spoke about the situation. of anonymity to protect their professional relationship.

OpenAI changed its policy on the use of its AI for military applications earlier this year. A source working in the company at the time says that some employees were unhappy with the change, but there were no open protests. The US military is already using OpenAI technology, according to a report by the Intercept.

Anduril is developing an advanced air defense system consisting of a fleet of small, autonomous aircraft that work together in missions. These aircraft are controlled through an interface powered by a large-scale language model, which interprets natural language commands and translates them into commands that human pilots and drones can understand and use. To date, Anduril uses open source language models for testing purposes.

Anduril is currently not known to use advanced AI to control its autonomous systems or allow them to make their own decisions. Such a move would be very dangerous, especially given the uncertainty of today’s models.

A few years ago, many AI researchers in Silicon Valley were strongly opposed to working with the military. In 2018, thousands of Google employees staged protests against the company providing AI to the US Department of Defense through what was known within the Pentagon as Project Maven. Google later pulled out of the project.