​This comes as the AI giant inked a deal with the Pentagon to provide AI for classified US military systems, just hours after President Trump ordered the government to stop using services from Anthropic.

​The collapse of talks between Anthropic and the Trump administration, with the company wanting guarantees that its AI would not be used for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons that can kill without human control, prompted President Trump to blast Anthropic as “left-wing nut jobs”.

​However, in a social media post, Altman admitted: “We shouldn’t have rushed to get this out on Friday. The issues are super complex, and demand clear communication.”

​“We were genuinely trying to de-escalate things and avoid a much worse outcome, but I think it just looked opportunistic and sloppy. Good learning experience for me as we face higher-stakes decisions in the future,” he said.

​In the same social media post, Altman outlined updates to the DoW deal, which includes prohibiting the AI system from being intentionally used for domestic surveillance of US persons and nationals.

​“It’s critical to protect the civil liberties of Americans, and there was so much focus on this that we wanted to make this point especially clear, including around commercially acquired information. Just like everything we do with iterative deployment, we will continue to learn and refine as we go,” he wrote.

​The agreement also restricts the deliberate tracking or monitoring of individuals, including through commercially acquired personal information.

​Alongside this, Altman revealed the DoW “also affirmed that our services will not be used by the Department of War intelligence agencies. Any services to those agencies would require a follow-on modification to our contract.

​“For extreme clarity: we want to work through democratic processes. It should be the government making the key decisions about society.

​“We want to have a voice and a seat at the table where we can share our expertise, and to fight for principles of liberty. But we are clear on how the system works.

“There are many things the technology just isn’t ready for, and many areas we don’t yet understand the trade-offs required for safety. We will work through these, slowly, with the DoW, with technical safeguards and other methods,” he added.