Pentagon deal pushes AI models toward 'minimal refusal', raising war crimes concerns

New reporting from The Intercept, published on 8 September, details language in a modification to OpenAI's Pentagon contract specifying delivery of "OpenAI models that are designed for national security use cases and have minimal refusal rates." The disputed clause appears in what is known as the P00003 modification to an Other Transaction Agreement between OpenAI Public Sector, LLC and the Pentagon's Chief Digital and AI Office, part of a prototype project running from June 2025 to June 2027, under a task titled "Testing, Evaluation, and Refinement of OpenAI Mission Models." The document was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by Legal Advocates for Safe Science and Technology on The Intercept's behalf, and describes an expanded prototype deal reportedly worth up to $200 million over two years.