- Sam Altman has published an internal memo about his military agreement with the US in X
- He says the announcement was “rushed” and has changed the wording.
- ChatGPT uninstalls increased by 295%, according to recent data
Controversy surrounding OpenAI’s decision to sign a defense agreement with the US Department of War (DoW) continues, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admitting that the agreement was “rushed” and ChatGPT uninstall rates increased by approximately 295%.
Altman took to social media to clarify some aspects of the agreement and change some of its wording. For example, the agreement now specifically states that AI systems powered by ChatGPT in the 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 address here), mass surveillance was the main sticking point for critics of the OpenAI deal, and for Claude’s developer Anthropic, which pulled out. of a deal with the DoW last week after failing to get the security guarantees it wanted from the US military.
In the same social media post, Altman says “we shouldn’t have rushed this out on Friday” and that it seemed “opportunistic and careless.” The CEO has also called on the US government to revoke 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 an unconstitutional order, of course I would rather go to jail than follow it.”
ChatGPT exodus continues
Here is a new post from an internal publication: We have been working with the DoW to make some additions to our agreement to make our principles very clear.1. We are modifying 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 alleviate security concerns will work. According to data from Sensor Tower (via TechCrunch), ChatGPT uninstall rates have increased 295% in the US in recent days, resulting in nearly three times as many users removing the app from their phones compared to an average day.
Many of those leaving ChatGPT seem to be heading to Claude. Sensor Tower reports that US installs were up 37% last Friday and 51% last Saturday, with Claude also hitting the top of Apple’s App Store charts. In recent days, the AI bot 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 on various Reddit threads that the quality of ChatGPT answers has been declining recently. The GPT-4o model was recently retired, something OpenAI has received a lot of criticism for.
It seems that consumers, the US government, OpenAI, and Anthropic will still have much more to say on these topics in the coming days, as the debate over the safety and ethics of AI models continues.
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