Caitlin Kalinowski, a hardware executive, revealed today that she has stepped down from her position leading OpenAI's robotics team. This decision comes as a direct response to the company's contentious new agreement with the Department of Defense. "This wasn't an easy call," Kalinowski stated in a social media post. "AI has an important role in national security. But surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got."

Kalinowski, who formerly headed the team developing augmented reality glasses at Meta, joined OpenAI in November 2024. In her announcement, she stressed that her resignation was "about principle, not people" and expressed "deep respect" for CEO Sam Altman and the broader OpenAI team. In a subsequent post on X, she clarified her stance: "To be clear, my issue is that the announcement was rushed without the guardrails defined. It's a governance concern first and foremost. These are too important for deals or announcements to be rushed."

OpenAI addressed the situation in a statement, saying, "We believe our agreement with the Pentagon creates a workable path for responsible national security uses of AI while making clear our red lines: no domestic surveillance and no autonomous weapons." The company added, "We recognize that people have strong views about these issues and we will continue to engage in discussion with employees, government, civil society and communities around the world."

The agreement between OpenAI and the Pentagon was unveiled just over a week ago. This followed the collapse of discussions between the Pentagon and another AI firm, Anthropic, which had sought to negotiate safeguards against the use of its technology for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. In response, the Pentagon designated Anthropic as a supply-chain risk. Anthropic has stated it will contest this designation in court. Meanwhile, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have confirmed they will continue offering Anthropic's Claude model to non-defense customers.

OpenAI then swiftly announced its own pact, permitting its technology to be utilized in classified environments. Company executives took to social media to explain the deal, describing it as a "more expansive, multi-layered approach." They emphasized that this strategy relies not only on contractual terms but also on technical safeguards to enforce red lines similar to those Anthropic had sought.

Despite these explanations, the controversy seems to have impacted OpenAI's standing with some users. Reports indicate a 295% surge in ChatGPT uninstalls, while Anthropic's Claude app climbed to the top of the App Store charts. As of Saturday afternoon, Claude and ChatGPT hold the positions of the number one and number two free apps, respectively, on the U.S. App Store.