A recent revelation has shocked many people, as it has been found out that a hacker was able to breach into the internal messaging systems of OpenAI in 2023. According to The New York Times article, the hacker successfully managed to obtain information about the development of OpenAI, which led to the insecurity of the advanced artificial intelligence study.
Recalled from the inside sources of the case, the hacker gained details from the discussions of the OpenAI staff on an online forum regarding the modern advancements in AI. Specifically, the leak happened in April 2023 The leaders of OpenAI reported the situation in the company to the employees and the members of the board of directors during the meeting with all the workers there.
Criticism and Leopold’s Firing
After the hack, OpenAI’s technical program manager, Leopold Aschenbrenner, wrote a memo to the OpenAI board of directors in which he pointed out that OpenAI was not doing enough to stop foreign competitors, in this case the Chinese government, from stealing from it. OpenAI fired Aschenbrenner for leaking other information outside the organization’s premises, and he said that his termination was politically influenced. He also referred to the leak in one of his podcasts in the recent past.
Liz Bourgeois, an OpenAI spokeswoman stated, “We appreciate the concerns Leopold raised while at OpenAI, and this did not lead to his separation. While we share his commitment to building safe A.G.I., we disagree with many of the claims he has since made about our work. This includes his characterizations of our security, notably this incident, which we addressed and shared with our board before he joined the company.”
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Due to this, OpenAI management did not think that the breach was a national security issue because they thought that the hacker was an independent person with no affiliation to a foreign government; therefore, they never reported the matter to the federal police.
OpenAI serves as a good lesson that today’s AI research organizations need to put emphasis on system security and try to guard certain information concerning AI technologies. As AI usage increases in our daily lives and with technological development, it is beneficial to act in advance towards possible negative utilization and cyber risks. The situation also puts focus on the necessity of proper regulation with the AI research community to prevent the negative consequences of AI malicious use.
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