Our agreement with the Department of War

On March 2, 2026 OpenAI announced an agreement with the Department of War that includes commitments that its tools will not be used for domestic surveillance of U.S. persons, including via commercially acquired personal or identifiable information.

The Department affirmed DoW intelligence agencies like the NSA will not use OpenAI services, and any services to those agencies would require a new agreement.

Agreement language cites the Fourth Amendment, the National Security Act of 1947, and the FISA Act of 1978, and states AI systems shall not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of U.S. persons and nationals.

The Department understands this to prohibit deliberate tracking, surveillance, or monitoring of U.S. persons or nationals, including through procurement or use of commercial information.

A working group with leaders from frontier AI labs, cloud providers, and the Department’s policy and operational communities — with OpenAI participating — will convene to discuss AI capabilities, privacy, and national security; updates build on last week’s framework and follow a Pentagon agreement that adds guardrails and sets three red lines: no mass domestic surveillance, no directing autonomous weapons, no high‑stakes automated decisions.