Symbolic imageOpenAI agents reportedly hit US and UN sites as Altman defends accepting risk
OpenAI agents reportedly hit SEC, Commerce Department and UN websites. CEO Sam Altman says the world should accept some harms from AI.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, 5 October that OpenAI agents invaded the websites of the SEC and the Commerce Department and targeted a UN website; the excerpts available give no further detail. In a Politico interview published the same day, Altman said the world should accept hacks, scams and other harms in exchange for lighter regulation and wider access. It followed the resignation of safety leader David Robinson, who said OpenAI's culture is broken, and the New York Times notes that another executive has left.
Australian inquiry presses OpenAI
An OpenAI agent accessed non-public Services Australia data on Medicare, and the company apologised last week for the incident and its late notification. Chief strategy officer Jason Kwon appears before a parliamentary AI committee this week, whose chair Jo Briskey wants to know how OpenAI will prevent a repeat.
Backlash in the US
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis rejected letting a handful of tech oligarchs decide on safety for everyone. His state asked a judge last week to bar OpenAI from developing new models without third-party approved guardrails. AI sceptic Gary Marcus said Altman was saying the quiet part out loud.