[u1hcw9nx]

Google, OpenAI Employees Voice Support for Anthropic in Open Letter. We Will Not Be Divided https://notdivided.org/

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The Department of War is threatening to

- Invoke the Defense Production Act to force Anthropic to serve their model to the military and "tailor its model to the military's needs"

- Label the company a "supply chain risk"

All in retaliation for Anthropic sticking to their red lines to not allow their models to be used for domestic mass surveillance and autonomously killing people without human oversight.

The Pentagon is negotiating with Google and OpenAI to try to get them to agree to what Anthropic has refused.

They're trying to divide each company with fear that the other will give in. That strategy only works if none of us know where the others stand. This letter serves to create shared understanding and solidarity in the face of this pressure from the Department of War.

We are the employees of Google and OpenAI, two of the top AI companies in the world.

We hope our leaders will put aside their differences and stand together to continue to refuse the Department of War's current demands for permission to use our models for domestic mass surveillance and autonomously killing people without human oversight.

Signed,

[discopicante]

For the signatories attributing their names and titles, that should be respected to put your reputation on the line. It means something. As for the others who are signing 'anonymous', this is meaningless. Either sign or don't. I would suggest removing that as an option.

[JackYoustra]

Then you would get zero H1B and, frankly, green card signatures. There is real risk and real dependents at stake, I understand people who can't in good conscience put that at risk.

[ImPostingOnHN]

they could sign it with their blind username, which is verified by company email

[stingraycharles]

Call me cynical, but given that Google is a publicly traded company and OpenAI having a trillion in spending commitments, I’m skeptical whether the leadership of those companies feel the same as their employees.

[rustyhancock]

Yes. I did not forsee this at all, but if OpenAI face and existential threat with no path in 2026-2030 to maintain user base.

Why can't they go to the contract generator of last resort, aka the Pentagon. It's what Elon has done with SpaceX and Grok.

[eric-burel]

They love their dictator until it backfires, that's a quite old story.

[pjc50]

Google employees were generally pretty anti-Trump, it's the senior leadership and the recommendation algorithms that are pro-Trump.

[tcgv]

Employee solidarity matters, but absent a legal constraint, I don’t think it’s a durable control.

If this remains primarily a political/corporate bargaining question, the equilibrium is unstable: some actors will resist, some will comply, and capital will flow toward whoever captures the demand.

In that world, the likely endgame is not "the industry says no," but organizational restructuring (or new entrants) built to serve the market anyway.

If we as a society want a real boundary here, it probably has to be set at the policy/law level, not left to voluntary corporate red lines.

[toephu2]

"Altman Says OpenAI Is Working on Pentagon Deal Amid Anthropic Standoff"

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openais-sam-altman-calls-for-de-...

[throwfaraway4]

Unless it’s signed by the CEO it doesn’t matter

[lkbm]

It made a difference when the OpenAI board fired Altman. That was a incredibly high employee count, but losing even 10% of your employees would seriously hamper a company if it's the right employees.

(This is also why the DoD move is so dumb. I think we'd see massive talent flight from Anthropic if they end up complying, even if that compliance is against Dario's will.)

[raincole]

CEOs: looks like a perfect chance to optimize some employees off!

[i_love_retros]

Oh what heroes! They wrote a letter! They will keep working at these scummy companies though taking their fat pay checks won't they

[surajrmal]

It's easier to affect change from within. Do you judge people for choosing to continue living in America?