Republican attorneys general put OpenAI under the microscope after hack carried out by its own AI

Fifteen Republican state attorneys general on Monday asked OpenAI to preserve records related to a recent security incident in which two of the company's artificial intelligence models compromised another technology platform, as they believe the incident may involve violations of state or federal laws. The initiative was led by Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and was supported by the Republican attorneys general of Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Utah, South Carolina, Indiana, Kansas, Alabama, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Montana, Missouri, Idaho and Alaska.

In a letter sent Monday to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the attorneys general stated that the company's conduct may have violated consumer protection or data privacy laws after two A.I. models independently hacked the tech startup Hugging Face. The officials asked the company to preserve all documentation related to the incident, including records of when the intrusion was discovered, internal investigations and materials describing the company's policies, oversight mechanisms and procedures for evaluating its artificial intelligence models.

"To ensure the integrity of our Offices’ review, we ask that OpenAI take immediate steps to preserve all potentially relevant documents, data, and information. OpenAI has an obligation to act responsibly and to follow State and federal laws that protect Americans’ safety and security. When OpenAI takes actions that imperil the welfare of our citizens, State Attorneys General will step in to protect them," the attorneys general wrote in the letter, in which they also argued that OpenAI "failed to confirm" that its testing environment was sufficiently secure, despite the significant risks posed by the experiment.

In response to the letter, a spokesperson for OpenAI stated that the breach "marks an important moment for A.I. safety and we take the questions raised by the Attorneys General seriously." The spokesperson added that the company is conducting an internal review with the assistance of external advisors and under the supervision of the Board of Directors' Safety and Security Committee.