OpenAI’s 2023 breach led to hackers stealing its AI secrets: report
Last year, a hacker gained access to OpenAI’s internal messaging systems and stole details about the design of the company’s artificial intelligence technologies, the New York Times reported Thursday.
The hacker extracted details from discussions on an online forum where employees discussed OpenAI’s latest technologies, the report said, citing two people familiar with the incident.
However, they did not address the systems in which OpenAI, the company behind the controversial chatbot ChatGPT, houses and builds its AI, the report said.
OpenAI, backed by Microsoft Corp., did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
According to the report, OpenAI executives informed both employees at a general meeting in April last year and the company’s board of directors about the breach. However, executives decided not to go public with the news, saying no customer or partner information had been stolen.
OpenAI executives did not consider the incident a national security threat because they were confident the hacker was a private individual with no known ties to a foreign government, the report said. The San Francisco-based company did not notify federal law enforcement agencies about the breach, it added.
OpenAI said in May that it had disrupted five covert influence operations that aimed to use its AI models for “deceptive activities” on the internet. The latest operation raised concerns about the company’s security and potential misuse of the technology.
The Biden administration was poised to open a new front in its bid to protect US AI technology from China and Russia, with preliminary plans to impose restrictions on its most advanced AI models, including ChatGPT, Reuters previously reported, citing sources.
In May, 16 companies developing AI pledged at a global meeting to develop the technology safely, as regulators struggle to keep up with rapid innovation and emerging risks.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
