OpenAICreator of ChatGPT and one of the most prominent artificial intelligence Companies around the world said today that it has partnered AndurilA defense startup that makes missiles, drones, and software for the United States military. This is the latest in a series of similar announcements made recently by major tech companies in Silicon Valley, which are set to forge closer ties with the defense industry.
“OpenAI builds AI to benefit more people and supports U.S.-led efforts to ensure that technology upholds democratic values,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement Wednesday. “
OpenAI's AI models will be used to improve systems used for air defense, Brian Schimpf, Anduril co-founder and CEO, said in the statement. “Together, we are committed to developing responsible solutions that enable military and intelligence operators to make faster, more accurate decisions in high-pressure situations,” he said.
OpenAI's technology will be used to “assess drone threats more quickly and accurately, giving operators the information they need to make better decisions while staying out of harm's way,” says a former OpenAI employee. Hai, who left the company earlier this year and spoke on the situation on condition of anonymity to protect his professional relationships.
OpenAI changed its policy on the use of its AI for military applications earlier this year. A source who worked at the company at the time says that some employees were unhappy with the change, but there was no open protest. us Army already uses As The Intercept reports, some OpenAI technology.
Anduril is developing an advanced air defense system consisting of a swarm of small, autonomous aircraft that work together on missions. These aircraft are controlled through an interface driven by a large language model, which interprets natural language commands and translates them into instructions that both human pilots and drones can understand and execute. As of now, Anduril is using open source language models for testing purposes.
Anduril is not currently known to use advanced AI to control its autonomous systems or allow them to make their own decisions. Such a move would be riskier, especially given the unpredictability of today's models.
A few years ago, many AI researchers in Silicon Valley were strongly opposed to working with militaryIn 2018, Thousands of Google employees protested At a company that supplied AI to the US Department of Defense, then known as Project Maven at the Pentagon. Google later stepped back of the project.