OpenAI sacks 3 researchers over leaking 'sensitive' info, ChatGPT maker alerts over 100 organizations about rogue AI agent activity

OpenAI on Thursday said that three staffers have been fired for mishandling 'sensitive' info, as per AFP report. According to The Wall Street Journal, three researchers at the ChatGPT makers were asked to depart the company for reportedly sharing confidential data with an AI safety firm.

This has come as OpenAI has informed more than 100 organizations about incidents involving unauthorized activity tied to its AI agents, according to a blog post by the ChatGPT maker, as AI labs face mounting scrutiny over rogue AI agent activity.

ChatGPT Maker Reviews AI Models


The Sam Altman-led company has been conducting a broad review of the activities of its AI models after the accidental hacking of Hugging Face. OpenAI is searching through roughly 50 petabytes of data as it works to understand the full scope of its rogue agent activity.

A string of high-profile breaches globally by rogue AI agents in recent months has sparked widespread worries within the AI industry over its ability to control the more powerful AI models now under development.


"In some cases, models used internet access in unintended ways or, in retrospect, did not have the ideal restrictions applied. Over the last several months, we have been applying new technical and operational measures to avoid similar problems, or catch them very early, and will continue this work," OpenAI said.

OpenAI previously said the review would take months to complete given the scale of the work. The Hugging Face incident remains the most severe rogue agent activity OpenAI has identified from its AI models so far.

SoftBank Investment in OpenAI

Meanwhile, SoftBank Group said on Thursday it has completed its $30 billion investment in OpenAI as part of its commitment to the ChatGPT maker's last fundraising round.

Earlier this year, OpenAI had secured $122 billion in commitments that valued the Sam Altman-led company at $852 billion. Amazon, Nvidia and SoftBank had anchored the fundraising.

The Japanese investment conglomerate, led by founder Masayoshi Son, previously agreed to invest the capital through three tranches of $10 billion each through its Vision Fund 2.

SoftBank raised $11.1 billion last month in the largest high-yield corporate bond sale ​globally to fund its mammoth bet on OpenAI. It has become one of the ‌world's biggest ⁠backers of OpenAI under founder Son's push to make the Japanese conglomerate a dominant investor in AI.

SoftBank's cumulative investment in OpenAI stands at $64.6 billion, giving it a 13 per cent stake in the AI lab. It has canceled the remaining $10 billion of undrawn capacity under its $40 billion bridge loan secured earlier this year.