I wrote last month about how brand values (not to be confused with ethics, though the values we’re discussing today do happen to deal with ethical questions) are essential to your business strategy and operations. Anthropic and OpenAI recently made some activity choices that proved this with the utmost drama.
My AI-fatigued heart pitter-pattered when I read that ChatGPT’s uninstalls were surging, that users were enthusiastically dropping it for competitor, Claude. The reason for the change? Users aren’t happy about OpenAI’s partnership with the DoD, renamed as the “Department of War” by he-who-shall-not-be-named. (That DoD to DoW name change is ripe for a brand strategy post, but I don’t want to spend any more time on those clowns than I have to.)
Meanwhile, adoption of Anthropic’s Claude has surged by 51% after the company refused to partner with the DoD. Anthropic took issue with the use of their AI for domestic mass surveillance and autonomous weapons systems that are capable of killing people without any human input. So, like, drones firing on humans without any humans telling them what to do. Pretty clear line in the sand for most of us, including Anthropic. OpenAI was fine to cross it, and now they’re paying for it, at least in the court of public opinion.
While I clearly deplore this situation and can’t believe the bar has sunk so low, what I love about it is how it illustrates the power of brand values, even in the morally bankrupt reality we’re currently navigating. Consumers are met with contradictions, hypocrisy, the subversion of truth everywhere we turn, and many companies see that as a sign that standing for something no longer matters; no one is keeping score.
But customers and employees alike are paying attention, and doing stuff about it. ChatGPT’s one-star app reviews blew up by 775% according to Tech Crunch, and the download growth of 14% day over day reversed to a 13% decrease overnight. Videos on how and why to make the switch to Claude are all over YouTube and TikTok, and will probably arrive on Instagram in a month, Facebook by Christmas. OpenAI continues to experience bad PR on top of a legacy of bad PR (no one likes OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who frequently spews crap like “I think you can say a lot of evil behavior by companies is short-term optimization” and “AI will probably most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there'll be great companies.”)
But let’s look to OpenAI’s core values to see if aligning with a self-proclaimed Department of War is on-brand. Their clunky “our character” page, which reads like it was written by ChatGPT prompted to talk like a bro, states that OpenAI is committed to the following principles: broadly distributed benefits, long-term safety, technical leadership, cooperative orientation. I don’t know about you, but these are some weaselly-sounding principles. That thing about safety looks promising at first, but apparently that value has more to do with the competitive race to artificial general intelligence than, say, the safety of innocent humans.
They do state the following under broad benefits: “We commit to use any influence we obtain over AGI’s deployment to ensure it is used for the benefit of all, and to avoid enabling uses of AI or AGI that harm humanity or unduly concentrate power.” It’s not an unequivocal commitment to safety, and “benefit of all” is a phrase that is frequently used to justify shady actions. They do state, “Our primary fiduciary duty is to humanity,” but it feels like they’re lying to me. I’d say their activity choices are out of alignment with the letter of their stated values, but may actually be aligned with the spirit of the values, which is why everything this company does feels so slimy. Verdict: their values are too slippery to pin down, so it’s hard to say if their activity choices are in alignment. That’s why everything this company does feels gross.
Anthropic’s website currently states that their values include: “act for the global good, hold light and shade, be good to our users, ignite a race to the top on safety, do simple things that work, be helpful, honest and harmless.” I have thoughts on these; some good things are happening here in terms of complexity and uniqueness, even if the overall effect is a little cringe. But concerning saying no to a fascist regime, I posit that they acted in alignment with their values, and users approved of the move. If anyone at the company wasn’t sure what to do when they found out what their AI would be used for, the answer was already on paper, plain as day. It’s not necessarily about good or bad, but the alignment itself feels good to consumers (except this time it is, because we’re talking about like murder and surveillance.)
Naive as I am, I’m aware that it’s not as straightforward as good tech giant vs. bad tech giant. Anthropic recently downgraded its safety position from a guarantee to a promise of full transparency about risk potential. Womp womp. While Anthropic drew the line at autonomous weapons, they still partnered on secret stuff with the Pentagon and surveillance tech giant, Palantir. Yes, they are actively differentiating themselves as the “safety first” AI company, but safety and AI might in fact be irreconcilable concepts. Maybe, as they have attested, Anthropic began working with the US government out of hope for the potential of AI, in an attempt to be a responsible participant with skin in the game vs. abstain completely and have no influence. Maybe I’m the pessimist for assuming Anthropic is likely as void of character as OpenAI, and they are simply playing a different, more polished marketing game. Because once again, brand values are not ethics, and brand values are always part of marketing. The point isn’t whether or not Anthropic is more humane, more good, but that they are currently following the letter and spirit of their values better than OpenAI.
OpenAI might ultimately come out on top in this arrangement, even if they don’t value public opinion or providing safe, useful tools for humans; they don’t have to adhere to the principles of marketing now that they have the Presidon’t on their side to play dirty on their behalf. Anthropic has been deemed a supply chain risk by the DoD, and is suing the Trump sadministration for retaliation.
Anthropic is busy enjoying these recent gains and has made it easier to make the switch from ChatGPT to Claude for anyone who wants to make the switch. Or you can simply fall back on using your brain, as I did in composing this entire post, because that aligns with my stated values.
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This was SUCH a fascinating read & summary. Thank you!