Defense Department Signs OpenAI For $200 Million 'frontier AI' Pilot Project

The US Department of Defense has contracted OpenAI to run a pilot program that will create "frontier AI," but it's not clear what they're building together.

Evidence of the deal appeared on Monday in the Department’s (DoD’s) daily list of newly-awarded contracts. That document mentions an award of up to $200 million for OpenAI. According to the brief details, the AI upstart will receive $2 million immediately, with more to come.

"Under this award, the performer will develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains," the DoD alert reads.

OpenAI mentioned a deal with the DoD in a blog post that announces the launch of a larger initiative called “OpenAI for Government”. As that name implies, the program aims to bring OpenAI’s tech to Washington.

The post also mentions the defense deal, stating it will "prototype how frontier AI can transform [the DOD's] administrative options." The post mentions outcomes such as helping service members get health care and aiding cyber defense.

The word "warfighting" is conspicuously absent in OpenAI’s post, which notes that use cases "must be consistent with OpenAI's usage policies and guidelines."

Those policies prohibit using OpenAI technology to "develop or use weapons." The company’s past policies banned "military and warfare" applications entirely, but last January it changed its wording to “Don’t use our service to harm yourself or others."

It's unclear if the same legalese applies to government users. We've asked OpenAI to clarify matters. For now, our best guess is: Cyber defense could certainly be useful in "warfighting," but isn't technically a weapon.

A statement from the DOD, sent to us on Tuesday, didn't shed much light on the matter:

• US Army signs up Band of Tech Bros with a suitably nerdy name
• Meta – yep, Facebook Meta – is now a defense contractor
• UK CyberEM Command to spearhead new era of armed conflict
• Musk torches $500B Stargate AI plan, Altman strikes back

The contract comes just days after OpenAI's Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil and former OpenAI Chief Revenue Officer Bob McGrew were officially sworn into the US Army Reserve as lieutenant colonels. The CTOs of Palantir and Meta did likewise and joined the newly formed Detachment 201: Executive Innovation Corps, which is advising the Pentagon on bringing AI to the military.

OpenAI has previously worked on military contracts with Anduril, the defense contractor set up by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey after he was shown the door at Meta - then Facebook - reportedly for his political views.

Incidentally, Meta and Anduril reunited for a different military tie-up last month. That effort will see the companies try to create some kind of augmented reality tech for soldiers after Microsoft gave up on a similar program. ®