- The US military given access to ChatGPT’s full power
- It can use the AI chatbot for “all lawful uses”
- ChatGPT will be hosted on government cloud infrastructure
OpenAI has agreed to provide the US military with ChatGPT after months of internal deliberation, marking a major advancement for the OpenAI for Government platform launched in July 2025.
Rather than accessing the consumer-facing ChatGPT interface, the chatbot will be available through GenAI.mil, the Pentagon’s secure AI platform, because the military’s version of ChatGPT will be slightly different from others.
Safeguards are incorporated at the model level, but the Pentagon’s ChatGPT will be available for “all lawful uses,” which means it should not be technically restricted.
US military scores its own ChatGPT
“We believe the people responsible for defending the country should have access to the best tools available,” OpenAI wrote. “AI can help protect people, deter adversaries, and prevent future conflict.”
Although the initial rollout is only for the US military, OpenAI did hint at broader support for more governments in the future: “Our goal is to help governments use AI effectively and safely.”
In its first, US-only guise, ChatGPT will be slightly tweaked to handle the department’s unclassified work, running in the government’s cloud infrastructure.
Apart from the obvious security measures, the military’s version of ChatGPT can be used for all the usual reasons, such as summarizing, analyzing, drafting work, generating reports and more.
OpenAI wasn’t guaranteed the contract, as rival companies Google and xAI were also up for consideration, having accepted that “all lawful uses” clause. Anthropic had reportedly pushed back, wanting more control over how Claude could be used.
In fact, it could be that Google and xAI tools might be adopted within GenAI.mil or more broadly across the Pentagon in other ways.
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