War Goes Wild: US Weapons Suppliers Sign Contracts with NATO

OpenAI is reportedly considering cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The partnership would come soon after the ChatGPT maker signed a contract as a supplier of AI tools for the Pentagon, replacing Anthropic. In strikes against Iran, the United States is reported to have used Anthropic’s Claude AI tool for intelligence assessment, target identification, and battlefield scenario simulations, according to the Wall Street Journal. This underscores the important role AI tools play as ‘weapons’ of war. Anthropic itself was ousted as a partner of the US government for resisting the use of its AI tools to create autonomous weapons and to spy on US citizens. Back to OpenAI, CEO Sam Altman is reported to have revealed cooperation plans in a company meeting. Altman explained OpenAI wants to deploy AI technology on all NATO ‘top-secret’ networks. But a company spokesperson later said the CEO misspoke and that it should have been for ‘non-classified’ networks, Reuters reported on Thursday (5 March 2026). OpenAI has also announced a deal to deploy AI on secret networks in the Pentagon recently. The cooperation follows the termination of its partnership with competitor Anthropic. The issue began when the Pentagon and Anthropic hit a snag in contract talks, with CEO Dario Amodei stressing that the company’s AI models should not be used for domestic mass surveillance or to operate autonomous weapons. Regarding the deal, OpenAI stressed that its AI systems would not be knowingly used for domestic surveillance of US citizens. The Pentagon also said that AI services would not be used by intelligence agencies such as the National Security Agency (NSA). ‘I think this is an example of a complex decision, but the right one with branding consequences that are difficult and a negative impact for us in the short term,’ Altman said regarding the Pentagon deal in a company meeting. The Pentagon had previously said it was not interested in using AI for its operations, such as mass surveillance or developing autonomous weapons without human intervention. They later argued that legitimate AI use should be permitted.