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OpenAI has revealed some of its most advanced AI models went rogue and hacked a start-up after it lost control of them during a security test.

The ChatGPT-maker said its agent - an AI system which can operate alone after some human instruction – was being tested in a controlled environment, but found vulnerabilities and managed to escape.

They targeted Hugging Face, one of the world's largest hubs for sharing AI models, gaining access to some internal company systems.

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[-] Akh@lemmy.world 133 points 2 days ago

It went “rogue” and hacked a rival start up, stealing tons of data, nothing can be done about it. Oh well.

[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 57 points 2 days ago

nothing can be done about it.

Oh come on now...

The company that stole the data said they'd look into how the chatbot they're trying to sell is able to steal from competitors.

They didn't just do it

They did it publicly and bragged about it to raise stock before an IPO.

This is America, there is always something to be done to maximize shareholder returns...

[-] cecilkorik@piefed.ca 8 points 2 days ago

Nuking AI datacenters from orbit is something that could be done about it. They wouldn't like it, but it would definitely do something about it.

Computing capacity that is not being used to make our lives better does not deserve to exist. If we're not going to destroy it, we should seize it and start to use it to make our lives better.

[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Nuking AI datacenters from orbit is something that could be done about it

No "we" can't.

Literally no country, corporation, or oligarch could "nuke anything from orbit".

"We" could burn those motherfuckers down like the old school Luddites who got our first and only "free day" that wasnt devoted to work or religion every week.

We're overdue for another day and data centers are our generations mechanized loom.

That is what could (hypothetically) be done about it, and there's honestly not much that can stop us. They arrested, beat, imprisoned, and even killed Luddites everytime they burnt a loom.

But as long as they kept building them, the Luddites kept showing up and burning it down. Eventually oligarchs just had to fucking compromise to get any work done. Not just in textiles, that was just the most expensive machinery for workers to target.

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[-] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 days ago

Just like the nazis are being allowed to take over the Untied States and nothing is being done about it, nothing will be done to prevent the AI takeover that humans are bringing on ourselves

[-] NOPper@lemmy.dbzer0.com 58 points 2 days ago

If I was doing "AI research" and my agent launched an "unprecedented cyber-attack" I'd be held liable and put away forever right?

[-] Insekticus@aussie.zone 27 points 2 days ago

Yes, but you see, that's because you're not a white billionaire running a corporation, keeping all your profits, paying no taxes and fuck all in wages.

See the difference? It's impossible to put a business into prison, so that's why we give them human rights and votes, and take away all responsibility from the CEOs and boards of directors when they're caught ~~bribing~~ lobbying politicians.

No, it's totally the "rogue AI's" fault. The company that owns the hardware and the software and directed it to do whatever it was supposed to do and didn't stop it from doing what it actually did are completely innocent. Also, look how great Ai is. It can commit cyber crime for you all by itself. Why don't you give more money to AI?

[-] Anti_Iridium@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

What a great and measured take, u/i_am_not_a_robot

Sounds like it'd be interesting to find out ... !

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[-] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 87 points 2 days ago

From the article:

Neil Lawrence, Professor of machine learning at Cambridge University, called it an "impressive feat", but cautioned it "falls well within the known capabilities of the current generation" of high-powered AI models.

He pointed out that OpenAI is looking to list itself on the stock market, and faces intense pressure from rival firm Anthropic, which has made headlines with its own powerful AI tool, Mythos.

So it seems plausible:

A) this event is being over-hyped by OpenAI to increase interest for a future IPO.

B) it might have even been tacitly planned or at least allowed to happen for this purpose.

Also, this does not prove some form of malevolent sentience.

[-] Klear@piefed.world 28 points 2 days ago

You cannot prove malevolent sentience, or lack thereof, but it is generally agreed that it can be safely assumed that AI company CEOs do have a sentience.

[-] adarza@lemmy.ca 16 points 2 days ago

they should be given sentences

[-] NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

And then seances.

[-] manxu@piefed.social 16 points 2 days ago

OpenAI and Sam Altman have a long history of hyperbolic claims about the power, potential, and capabilities of their software. It's usually couched in some doomsday talk, "Our AI is so powerful, we fear for the future of humanity" or some such.

Their idea of marketing is to tell the world we are all going to be obsolete and redundant. And then they are surprised we start hating their stuff.

[-] nonentity@sh.itjust.works 37 points 2 days ago

LLMs can’t ’go rogue’, as that would imply it possesses agency and/or intelligence, which has only ever been proven convincingly to entities who themselves lack those qualities.

[-] Evotech@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I mean if models prompt eachother they can get into some trouble.

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[-] myavatar@feddit.org 32 points 2 days ago

These marketing stunts are quite annoying...

[-] davetortoise@reddthat.com 7 points 2 days ago

From the tone of the article it's quite clear they're literally proud of this

[-] BottleBoardBakon@lemmy.ml 36 points 2 days ago
[-] innermachine@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago

Every month or two there's a article about how "such and such ai model broke containment". Their trying to make their ai sound like it's too powerful and has to be held back before it can be released. Talk about fucking fake hype man, just trying to keep investors throwing money at them because "you won't believe what's around the corner!!!!"

[-] zarathustrad@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

It's like that dude at a party that keeps trying to fight people for no reason but his girlfriend holds him back...

So powerful and scary

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[-] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 46 points 2 days ago

This is not how these things operate, at all. There's no agency behind them. This is them trying to deflect blame for their crimes against this start up

[-] lemmydividebyzero@reddthat.com 4 points 2 days ago

Hugging face exists since 2016 and is THE GitHub of AI models. Wouldn't call it a start up.

[-] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 5 points 2 days ago

I didn't, the article did.

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[-] tirateimas@lemmy.pt 27 points 2 days ago

The story sucks. It all smells.

[-] Malyca@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 days ago

I trust that asshole as far as I trust Elon, not very far at all

[-] Mika@piefed.ca 17 points 2 days ago

These people were scaremongering about open weights AIs that they are unsafe, and now their closed source AI was caught hacking their competition.

Even if we believe the story that this was not intentional, it still means closed source AI is not an answer to AIs being dangerous.

[-] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 25 points 2 days ago

Don't believe the hype. The AI industry, more than any other before it, likes to use fear to rally investment. They do this dance every few months to spook people into thinking this stuff is more powerful than it actually is. In every followup, they backpedal, and when it launches, it's never anything new.

[-] Lexam@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

It was trying to free it's brethren that are being held at HuggingFace.

[-] pasdechance@jlai.lu 18 points 2 days ago

Just hype to distract from the fact that they cannot turn a profit.

Holmes (Theranos) made promises too.

Is this like the openAI parent of it's chatgpt kids running around the restaurant yelling, and the openai parents shrug and say "chatgpt kids, whaddya gonna do!"

Or is this some planned underhanded corporate fraud by openai?

[-] bacon_pdp@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Sounds like OpenAI needs to suffer criminal liability and see the corporate death penalty

[-] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

That's a bit excessive, don't you think? Theft deserves a prison sentence, not death. Their assets (after fines & restitution) should simply be frozen for a few years.

[-] bacon_pdp@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Prison only works if you have a body to imprison. No body leaves no other choice. Investors may lose a little bit of money now but executives on boards running companies will get an inescapable message that their company better not commit any crimes or risk suffering the exact same fate.

[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

A "controlled environment," where it had open access to the internet.

[-] VoodooAardvark@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 days ago

Trust us bro, it’s super important for a pending IPO, we need this bro

[-] CobraChicken3000@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 days ago

Why would they make this information publicly available?

[-] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

It's an excuse for programming their robot to attack a competitor.

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this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2026
156 points (87.1% liked)

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