OpenAI faces Senate probe into Hugging Face incident

A Republican-led Senate subcommittee responsible for ​disaster-management oversight is examining ​OpenAI's response to the July Hugging ​Face breach.

In a September 9 letter to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Senator Josh Hawley said the investigation was launched ‌in ⁠light of "new, ⁠disturbing evidence" surrounding the incident and described as "reckless" the company's decision to continue testing despite detecting rogue AI behavior.

In ​the letter, Hawley also said OpenAI had "redacted many important details" about the incident and argued ​that "the American people deserve to ⁠know the ‌details of what went on in ​the ​Hugging Face incident and other incidents ⁠of AI models going rogue."


The Republican senator ​directed OpenAI to provide answers and documents ​related to the incident by October 1, including responses to 16 detailed questions and records covering the company's policies, procedures and handling of rogue AI activity.

OpenAI and Hugging Face did ‌not respond to Reuters requests for comment outside regular business hours.

The inquiry follows the ​ChatGPT ​maker's July disclosure ⁠that models undergoing internal cybersecurity testing circumvented controls intended to keep them isolated from the internet and compromised ​parts of Hugging Face's systems.

OpenAI had said the activity was primarily driven by an internal research model that was not intended for public release.