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OpenAI said Monday<\/a> the U.S. Department of Defense granted it a contract for up to $200 million to help the agency identify and build prototype systems that use its frontier models for administrative tasks and more.<\/p>\n OpenAI provides a few examples of possible tasking, such as helping service members get healthcare, streamlining data on various programs, and \u201csupporting proactive cyber defense.\u201d The company also said that \u201cAll use cases must be consistent with OpenAI\u2019s usage policies and guidelines.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The DoD\u2019s announcement <\/a>used slightly more straightforward wording. It says, \u201cUnder this award, the performer will develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether that reference to war-fighting applies to the weapons themselves or just other areas associated with wars, like paperwork, remains to be seen. OpenAI\u2019s guidelines do forbid individual users to use ChatGPT or its APIs to develop or use weapons. However, OpenAI deleted the explicit prohibitions of \u201cmilitary and warfare\u201d in its terms of service back in January, 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n Given how heavily some powerful people in Silicon Valley have warned of the dangers of China\u2019s advanced LLM models, it\u2019s not surprising the DoD wants to use OpenAI for whatever purposes it wants. For instance, Marc Andreessen, co-founder of VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, an OpenAI investor, recently appeared on Jack Altman\u2019s \u201cUncapped\u201d podcast (brother of Sam Altman). Andreessen described the race between China\u2019s AI and the western world\u2019s models as a \u201ccold war.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Still, perhaps an equally interesting part of this announcement is what it says about OpenAI\u2019s increasingly strained relationship with its major investor Microsoft<\/a>.<\/p>\n Microsoft has thousands of contracts<\/a> with the federal government worth hundreds of millions of dollars. It has, for decades, been implementing the strict security protocols necessary for the government \u2013 especially the DoD \u2013 to use its cloud.\u00a0<\/p>\n OpenAI announced this deal as part of its broader new \u201cOpenAI for Government\u201d program, which consolidates a number of other programs it uses to sell wares directly to government agencies, including the U.S. National Labs\u2060, the Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA, NIH, and the Treasury, according to the company.<\/p>\n