Chat GPT uninstalls are up 295% as Sam Altman admits mistakes over Open AI's controversial deal with the US military | Tech Radar

Overview

'It just looked opportunistic and sloppy': Sam Altman regrets rushed defense deal as Chat GPT uninstalls surge by 295%

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Details

Sam Altman is trying to explain his company's deal with the US government (Image credit: Getty Images / Tomohiro Ohsumi / Stringer)

Sam Altman has published an internal memo about its US military deal on X

He says the announcement was "rushed" and has tweaked the wording

Chat GPT uninstalls are up by 295%, according to recent data

The controversy around Open AI's decision to sign a defense deal with the US Department of War (Do W) continues to rumble on, with Open AI CEO Sam Altman admitting the agreement was "rushed", and Chat GPT uninstall rates up by some 295%.

Altman has taken to social media to clarify some aspects of the deal, and to change some of the wording in it. For example, the agreement now specifically states that Chat GPT-powered AI systems at the Do W "shall not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of US persons and nationals".

Along with the use of fully autonomous weapons (which Altman doesn't address here), mass surveillance was a main sticking point for critics of the Open AI deal — and for Claude developer Anthropic, which walked away from a Do W deal last week after failing to get the safety and security assurances it wanted from the US military.

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In the same social media post, Altman says "we shouldn't have rushed to get this out on Friday", and that it came across as "opportunistic and sloppy". The CEO has also called on the US government to reverse its directive to freeze out Anthropic and Claude from official agencies, describing it as a "very bad decision".

He added that "we want to work through democratic processes" and that "if I received what I believed was an unconstitutional order, of course I would rather go to jail than follow it".

Here is re-post of an internal post: We have been working with the Do W to make some additions in our agreement to make our principles very clear.1. We are going to amend our deal to add this language, in addition to everything else:"• Consistent with applicable laws,…March 3, 2026

Here is re-post of an internal post: We have been working with the Do W to make some additions in our agreement to make our principles very clear.1. We are going to amend our deal to add this language, in addition to everything else:"• Consistent with applicable laws,…March 3, 2026

It remains to be seen whether Altman's latest attempts at assuaging security concerns will work. According to data from Sensor Tower (via Tech Crunch), Chat GPT uninstall rates are up 295% in the US over the last few days — so nearly three times as many users are taking the app off their phones compared to an average day.

Many of those Chat GPT quitters seem to be heading to Claude. Sensor Tower reports installs in the US were up 37% last Friday and up 51% last Saturday, and Claude has also hit the top of the Apple App Store charts. Within the last couple of days the AI bot has also made chat memory available for all users.

A quick glance at Reddit suggests that AI ethics are important for a lot of users, though there are also numerous complaints across several Reddit threads that the quality of Chat GPT's responses have been declining recently. The GPT-4o model was recently retired, something else which Open AI has received a lot of criticism for.

It feels as though consumers, the US government, Open AI, and Anthropic will still have plenty more to say on these issues in the days ahead, as the debate on the safety and ethicality of AI models continues.

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Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on Tech Radar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, Pop Sci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.

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Key Takeaways

• 'It just looked opportunistic and sloppy': Sam Altman regrets rushed defense deal as Chat GPT uninstalls surge by 295%

• When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission

• Sam Altman is trying to explain his company's deal with the US government (Image credit: Getty Images / Tomohiro Ohsumi / Stringer)

• Sam Altman has published an internal memo about its US military deal on X

• He says the announcement was "rushed" and has tweaked the wording