Attorney General Brenna Bird Leads Coalition Demanding Transparency from OpenAI after AI Breach and Hacking

DES MOINES—Attorney General Brenna Bird announced today she is leading a coalition of 15 states demanding transparency and accountability from the AI company OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, for its complete lack of oversight and transparency in the hacking of Hugging Face, another AI company.   

In July, OpenAI unleashed an experimental artificial intelligence model that, without reasonable controls or oversight, gained unauthorized access to several computer networks which culminated in a days-long hack on another AI company. The coalition asserts OpenAI’s inability or unwillingness to ensure the safety of its products poses an imminent risk of substantial harm to their states. 

“This is exactly what we are worried about with artificial intelligence. AI can be a powerful tool for good, when harnessed safely,” said Attorney General Brenna Bird. “Unfortunately, OpenAI so badly managed a security test that it let its powerful tool infiltrate and learn from other secure networks, and finally attack another company’s network, hacking it for days. The AI weaponized itself, which is extremely scary. In the aftermath, OpenAI has downplayed the severity of this breach and has been vague in its public response, leading to public distrust. I am leading a coalition of 15 states to demand transparency and accountability of what really happened. And I want to make sure that OpenAI will prevent this hacking from ever happening again.”   

OpenAI may have violated state and federal laws, including consumer protection and data-privacy statutes that many attorneys general are charged with enforcing. The coalition asks that OpenAI take immediate steps to preserve all potentially relevant documents, data, and information and ensures that no OpenAI personnel face any adverse action for engaging in any protected whistleblowing activity or for reporting any unlawful or harmful activities by OpenAI. Finally, they ask that OpenAI immediately cease and desist from all tests that led to this hacking unless and until OpenAI shows that it can conduct such activities in a controlled and responsible way.  

The Iowa-led coalition is joined by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah.  

Read full letter here.  

###

For More Information:

Contact: Jen Green | jen.green@ag.iowa.gov