Anthropic’s Claude has received strong support from users in its fight with the US Department of Defence (DoD), while OpenAI locked down a deal with the Pentagon to deploy its technology on the defence department’s classified network.
Soon after the deal, Anthropic’s Claude not only received significant support on social media but the AI chatbot is now ranked at the number one spot on Apple’s App Store in the free apps category, overtaking ChatGPT.
Meanwhile, OpenAI has faced flak on social media after the company’s deal with the Department of Defense was finalised. Users on platforms like Reddit and X have even called for cancellation of ChatGPT subscriptions in favour of Anthropic’s Claude.
American singer Katy Perry, for instance, put out a post on X with the caption ‘Done’, while the image showed her purchasing Anthropic’s subscription with a heart in it.
Meanwhile, a user on Reddit, clearly not impressed by the OpenAI deal, wrote, “I think it’s time to burn any bridges we had with ChatGPT, cancel your subscription, delete it too obviously. Also start leaving bad reviews on Play Store and App Store. And if you have to, use an open weights model!”
Some other users on the dedicated ChatGPT subreddit have gone on to call for shifting to Claude AI after the DoD deal. One such user wrote, “This was a calculated business decision to chase government money at the expense of everything they promised when they asked for your trust and your subscription. You can be done with them in 15 minutes. And you can make the last month hurt a little on your way out.”
OpenAI inks deal with US govt:
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed on X that the company has signed a deal with the US government for use of its models in classified work. Altman also noted that the US government has shown a ‘deep respect for safety and a desire to partner to achieve the best possible outcome’.
“Two of our most important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems. The DoD agrees with these principles, reflects them in law and policy, and we put them into our agreement,” Altman noted.
The statement by Altman came just hours after US President Donald Trump announced a ban on Anthropic for not cooperating with his administration on the use of its AI tools. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also said that he would be designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk under a law that is usually reserved for foreign companies like Huawei.
Anthropic, for its part, has said that it would be challenging the supply chain risk designation in court. The company also said that its deal with the US government fell apart after it set two exceptions to the use of Claude: mass domestic surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons.
