OpenAI Quietly Deletes Ban On Using ChatGPT For 'Military and Warfare'

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Intercept: OpenAI this week quietly deleted language expressly prohibiting the use of its technology for military purposes from its usage policy, which seeks to dictate how powerful and immensely popular tools like ChatGPT can be used. Up until January 10, OpenAI's 'usage policies' page included a ban on 'activity that has high risk of physical harm, including,' specifically, 'weapons development' and 'military and warfare.' That plainly worded prohibition against military applications would seemingly rule out any official, and extremely lucrative, use by the Department of Defense or any other state military. The new policy retains an injunction not to 'use our service to harm yourself or others' and gives 'develop or use weapons' as an example, but the blanket ban on 'military and warfare' use has vanished.

The unannounced redaction is part of a major rewrite of the policy page, which the company said was intended to make the document 'clearer' and 'more readable,' and which includes many other substantial language and formatting changes. 'We aimed to create a set of universal principles that are both easy to remember and apply, especially as our tools are now globally used by everyday users who can now also build GPTs,' OpenAI spokesperson Niko Felix said in an email to The Intercept. 'A principle like 'Don't harm others' is broad yet easily grasped and relevant in numerous contexts. Additionally, we specifically cited weapons and injury to others as clear examples.' Felix declined to say whether the vaguer 'harm' ban encompassed all military use, writing, 'Any use of our technology, including by the military, to '[develop] or [use] weapons, [injure] others or [destroy] property, or [engage] in unauthorized activities that violate the security of any service or system,' is disallowed.' 'OpenAI is well aware of the risk and harms that may arise due to the use of their technology and services in military applications,' said Heidy Khlaaf, engineering director at the cybersecurity firm Trail of Bits and an expert on machine learning and autonomous systems safety, citing a 2022 paper (PDF) she co-authored with OpenAI researchers that specifically flagged the risk of military use. 'There is a distinct difference between the two policies, as the former clearly outlines that weapons development, and military and warfare is disallowed, while the latter emphasizes flexibility and compliance with the law,' she said. 'Developing weapons, and carrying out activities related to military and warfare is lawful to various extents. The potential implications for AI safety are significant. Given the well-known instances of bias and hallucination present within Large Language Models (LLMs), and their overall lack of accuracy, their use within military warfare can only lead to imprecise and biased operations that are likely to exacerbate harm and civilian casualties.'

'I could imagine that the shift away from 'military and warfare' to 'weapons' leaves open a space for OpenAI to support operational infrastructures as long as the application doesn't directly involve weapons development narrowly defined,' said Lucy Suchman, professor emerita of anthropology of science and technology at Lancaster University. 'Of course, I think the idea that you can contribute to warfighting platforms while claiming not to be involved in the development or use of weapons would be disingenuous, removing the weapon from the sociotechnical system -- including command and control infrastructures -- of which it's part.' Suchman, a scholar of artificial intelligence since the 1970s and member of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control, added, 'It seems plausible that the new policy document evades the question of military contracting and warfighting operations by focusing specifically on weapons.'

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