The New York Times report In early 2023, a hacker gained access to OpenAI’s internal messaging systems and stole information about the company’s artificial intelligence technologies. The company disclosed the incident to employees but not to the public or law enforcement.
The hacker managed to steal information from discussions in an online forum for OpenAI employees, where they talked about the latest technologies. Fortunately for the company, the hacker was unable to break into the systems where GPT models are stored and trained.
Two sources who brought this information to The New York Times said some OpenAI employees have raised features that such attacks could be used by countries like China to steal AI technology. Ultimately, this could endanger US national security.
When told about the incident, some employees also raised questions about how serious the company was about security. It is also said that divisions have emerged among employees regarding the risks of artificial intelligence.
In connection with the incident, OpenAI’s former technical program manager wrote a memo to the company’s board saying that the company was not doing enough to stop the theft of secrets by foreign adversaries. The manager was Leopold Aschenbrenner, who hinted at the security breach in the podcast. He was fired by OpenAI for leaking information outside the company and claims that the firing was politically motivated.
The revelation that OpenAI was hacked and that it caused division among employees only adds to the growing list of problems at the company. We’ve seen CEO Sam Altman fight with a previous board and come out on top. Recently, several AI safety researchers left the company due to disagreements about super-alignment, where there are methods for humans to control super-intelligent AI.
According to prominent figures in the field of artificial intelligence, such as Danielle Amoday, co-founder of Anthropic, if the latest designs of artificial intelligence were stolen, it would not be a major threat to national security. However, as this technology becomes more capable, then this may change.