U.S. artificial intelligence company OpenAI is considering signing a contract with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to deploy its artificial intelligence technology on NATO's "unclassified" networks, according to people familiar with the matter. The development comes just days after the ChatGPT developer reached an agreement with the U.S. Pentagon to deploy AI technology in classified networks.
Previously, the Wall Street Journal first reported that OpenAI was considering reaching a relevant agreement with NATO. According to the report, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said at an internal company meeting that the company was seeking to deploy the technology in all NATO "classified networks," but a company spokesperson later clarified to the newspaper that Altman had "misspoken" before and that this contract opportunity only involved NATO's "unclassified networks."
NATO is currently a military alliance composed of 32 member countries. NATO did not comment outside normal office hours. OpenAI has accelerated its cooperation with governments and security agencies in the past year, and its major shareholders include Microsoft, Amazon and other technology giants.
Just last week, OpenAI announced a deal with the U.S. Department of Defense to deploy its AI technology in the Pentagon’s classified networks. The agreement comes after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to terminate cooperation with rival Anthropic.
Anthropic was removed from related projects after an impasse in contract negotiations with the Pentagon. The company’s CEO, Dario Amodai, has repeatedly stressed that Anthropic opposes the U.S. Department of Defense’s use of its AI models to conduct large-scale domestic surveillance or to drive fully autonomous weapons systems. The Pentagon has repeatedly stated that it has no intention to use AI to conduct large-scale surveillance of American citizens, nor will it use AI to develop weapons that are completely out of human control, but it hopes to apply artificial intelligence technology as widely as possible within the scope of the law.
After reaching an agreement with the Pentagon last Friday, OpenAI issued an updated statement on Monday stating that its AI systems "may not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance against U.S. citizens and nationals." The statement also noted that the U.S. Department of Defense has confirmed that these AI services will not be used by intelligence agencies such as the National Security Agency (NSA).
When talking about the agreement with the Pentagon at an internal company meeting on Tuesday, Altman said that the decision was a "complex but correct decision" and that although it would have an "extremely negative" impact on OpenAI's brand image and public opinion in the short term, the company still chose to move forward with this cooperation. The Wall Street Journal quoted the meeting as saying that Altman regarded this cooperation with the US Department of Defense as a typical case of difficult trade-offs between values, business interests and public image.