Pentagon–OpenAI Contract Release Includes Disputed ‘Minimal Refusal’ Language

A Pentagon–OpenAI contract document released through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit defines national-security “Mission Models” as having “minimal refusal rates.” OpenAI and the Pentagon say the phrase was not in the executed agreement, while a Justice Department attorney later withdrew an initial confirmation that the released document was final.

What the disputed phrase describes

The language appears in version P00003, an update tied to a prototype agreement valued at up to $200 million over two years. It describes OpenAI’s required work as testing, evaluating and refining Mission Models for national-security problem sets, then defines those models as designed for such use cases with minimal refusal rates.

A refusal rate describes how often an AI model declines a request under its safety controls. The released definition describes specialized models intended to turn down requests less often, but the document does not identify the national-security requests at issue.

Why the record’s status matters

The Intercept sought final, executed contracts and explicitly excluded drafts; none of the released documents was marked as a draft. A Justice Department attorney initially confirmed that the document was signed and executed, then withdrew that confirmation. Days later, the attorney said it was not final and promised a corrected document without a definite timeline.

OpenAI spokesperson Nate Evans gave an account of the negotiations: the company had rejected the wording in an earlier Defense Department proposal, the department agreed to remove it, and the executed agreement excluded it. OpenAI did not provide the full contract to The Intercept.

An explanation still outstanding

Pentagon official Trevor Tiedeman said he would account for how the document was flagged by FOIA officers, cleared for release and confirmed by government lawyers. According to The Intercept, he later stopped responding to its inquiries. That leaves the promised corrected record as the next document needed to resolve the conflicting accounts.