The U.S. Department of Defense has been reported to request OpenAI to provide a special version of AI with the "lowest rejection rate" for military commands

Documents obtained by The Intercept through a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act show that the U.S. Department of Defense once requested OpenAI to provide a version of artificial intelligence specifically tailored for the military, with a "very low refusal rate" for commands. This statement appeared in the updated contract for the 2025 prototype agreement "P00003," which is a two-year agreement worth up to $200 million, covering logistics, intelligence decision-making, and operational uses. OpenAI, Google, xAI, and Anthropic all agreed to develop such militarized prototypes in 2025.

OpenAI spokesperson Nate Evans stated that the company never agreed to contract terms that included a "very low refusal rate," and the relevant documents were early drafts from the Department of Defense, with the final executed contract not containing that statement. Department of Defense spokesperson Jacob Bliss also indicated that the phrase did not appear in any current contracts. The Intercept pointed out that the documents obtained were not marked as drafts; a Department of Justice lawyer representing the Pentagon once confirmed that the document was a signed executed version, but later requested to disregard that confirmation and stated that further investigation was needed.

The latest contract signed on February 27 allows OpenAI services to be deployed on military classified networks, with similar delivery terms completely redacted. OpenAI stated that it has drawn a red line regarding autonomous killing and surveillance of Americans, but the contract text allows the government to determine any use as legal.