ChatGPT boycott surges after OpenAI signs deal with US Department of War
Users are boycotting ChatGPT after its developer OpenAI agreed a deal to collaborate with the US Department of War.
An increasing number of people are boycotting ChatGPT after the chatbot's developer OpenAI signed a deal to work with the US Department of War.
The firm's deal with the Pentagon was announced last week and comes after Donald Trump's administration tried to terminate a contract with Anthropic after the AI startup expressed concern about its products being used for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.
Trump wrote in a Truth Social post: "The Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a DISASTROUS MISTAKE trying to STRONG-ARM the Department of War, and force them to obey their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution."
Anthropic's chatbot Claude has since risen to the top of Apple's chart for free apps, overtaking ChatGPT to do so.
OpenAI chief Sam Altman says his company's deal with the Pentagon will enable the US military to use its AI tools within its classified systems and claimed that the Department of War had a "deep respect for safety" and would abide by safeguarding rules to prevent misuse of the tech.
He wrote in a statement posted on X: "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 DoW agrees with these principles, reflects them in law and policy, and we put them into our agreement."
Altman's announcement has added momentum to the boycott of ChatGPT, with one of the top posts on the 11 million-member ChatGPT community on Reddit calling for users to cancel their subscriptions to the chatbot.
The post stated: "OpenAI just made a deal with a devil. Sam Altman decided defense money was more important than every principle the company was founded on."
The post implored users to switch to Claude and noted that all data and projects can be exported to the rival chatbot.
