User Chris: What was the core difference why you think the DoW accepted OpenAI but not Anthropic

Sam Altman:
I can't speak for them, but to speculate with the best understanding of the situation.

*First, I saw reporting that they were extremely close on a deal, and for much of the time both sides really wanted to reach one. I have seen what happens in tense negotiations when things get stressed and deteriorate super fast, and I could believe that was a large part of what happened here.

*We believe in a layered approach to safety--building a safety stack, deploying FDEs and having our safety and alignment researcher involved, deploying via cloud, working directly with the DoW. Anthropic seemed more focused on specific prohibitions in the contract, rather than citing applicable laws, which we felt comfortable with. We feel that it it's very important to build safe system, and although documents are also important, I'd clearly rather rely on technical safeguards if I only had to pick one.

*We and the DoW got comfortable with the contractual language, but I can understand other people would have a different opinion here.

*I think Anthropic may have wanted more operational control than we did