- Sam Altman released an internal memo regarding his US military deal on
- He says the announcement was “rushed” and changed the wording
- ChatGPT uninstalls increased by 295%, according to recent data
Controversy surrounding OpenAI’s decision to sign a defense deal with the US Department of War (DoW) continues to rage, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admitting the deal was “rushed” and ChatGPT uninstall rates increased by around 295%.
Altman took to social media to clarify aspects of the deal and change some terms. For example, the agreement now specifically states that AI systems powered by ChatGPT at DoW “shall not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of U.S. persons and nationals.”
Along with the use of fully autonomous weapons (which Altman doesn’t discuss here), mass surveillance was a main sticking point for critics of the OpenAI deal — and for Claude developer Anthropic, which pulled out. of an agreement with the DoW last week after failing to obtain the safety and security guarantees it wanted from the US military.
In the same social media post, Altman said “we shouldn’t have rushed to post this on Friday,” and that it seemed “opportunistic and sloppy.” The CEO also called on the US government to reverse its directive to exclude Anthropic and Claude from official agencies, calling it a “very bad decision”.
He added that “we want to work through democratic processes” and that “if I received what I consider to be an unconstitutional order, of course I would rather go to prison than follow it.”
ChatGPT exodus continues
Here is a repost of an internal message:We have worked with the DoW to make some additions to our agreement to make our principles very clear.1. We will amend our agreement to add this language, in addition to everything else: “In accordance with applicable laws,…March 3, 2026
It remains to be seen whether Altman’s latest attempts to quell security concerns will bear fruit. According to data from Sensor Tower (via TechCrunch), ChatGPT uninstall rates have increased by 295% in the US over the past few days, meaning nearly three times as many users are removing the app from their phones compared to an average day.
Many of these ChatGPT dropouts seem to be heading towards Claude. Sensor Tower reports that US installs increased 37% last Friday and 51% last Saturday, and Claude also reached the top of Apple’s App Store charts. Over the past few days, the AI bot has also made chat memory available to all users.
A quick look at Reddit suggests that AI ethics are important to many users, although there are also numerous complaints in several Reddit threads that the quality of ChatGPT’s responses has declined recently. The GPT-4o model was recently retired, for which OpenAI received a lot of criticism.
It appears that consumers, the US government, OpenAI and Anthropic will have much more to say on these issues in the days to come, as the debate over the safety and ethics of AI models continues.
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