OpenAI Strikes Deal With US Government to Use Its AI for Nuclear Weapon Security

Remember the plot to the 1984 sci-fi blockbuster "The Terminator"?

"There was a nuclear war," a character explains. "Defense network computers. New... powerful... hooked into everything, trusted to run it all. They say it got smart, a new order of intelligence. Then it saw all people as a threat, not just the ones on the other side. Decided our fate in a microsecond: extermination."

It seems like either the execs at OpenAI have never seen it or they're working overtime to make that premise a reality.

Don't believe us? OpenAI has announced that the US National Laboratories will use its deeply flawed AI models to help with a "comprehensive program in nuclear security."

As CNBC reports, up to 15,000 scientists working at the institutions will get access to OpenAI's latest o1 series of AI models — the ones that Chinese startup DeepSeek embarrassed on the world stage earlier this month.

According to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who announced the partnership at an event in Washington, DC, the tech will be "focused on reducing the risk of nuclear war and securing nuclear materials and weapons worldwide," as quoted by CNBC.

If any alarm bells are ringing by this point, you're not alone. We've seen plenty of instances of OpenAI's AI models leaking sensitive user data and hallucinating false claims with abandon.

OpenAI's been making a huge push into government. Earlier this week, the Sam Altman-led company released ChatGPT Gov, a platform specifically designed for US government use that focuses on security.

But whether the company can deliver on some sky-high expectations — while also ensuring that its frequently lying AI chatbots won't leak the nuclear codes or trigger the next nuclear war — is anyone's guess.

The news comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI is in early talks for a new round of funding that would value it at a gargantuan $340 billion, double its previous valuation last year.

Altman has also fully embraced president Donald Trump, gifting him $1 million for his inauguration and claiming that he had "really changed my perspective on him" after trashing him in years past.

OpenAI also signed onto Trump's $500 billion AI infrastructure deal, dubbed Stargate, with the plan of contributing tens of billions of dollars within the next year.

Whether the company's o1 reasoning models will prove useful in any meaningful way to the researchers at the US National Laboratories remains to be seen.

But given the widespread dismantling of regulations under the Trump administration, it also feels like an unbelievably precarious moment to be handing over any amount of control over nuclear weapons to a busted AI system.

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