--- title: "Suspicion Grows About OpenAI’s Tale About Its Rogue Hacker AI" description: "Holes are beginning to form in OpenAI's story about a gang of rogue AI models busting out of the lab and hacking another company." date: "2026-07-27" modified: "2026-07-27" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/openai-rogue-hack-ai-suspicion-chatgpt" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Cybersecurity" - "Future Society" - "Machine Learning" - "OpenAI" --- # Suspicion Grows About OpenAI’s Tale About Its Rogue Hacker AI ![A colorful photo illustration featuring a man with his arms crossed and one eyebrow arched in an expression of suspicion. Behind him the OpenAI logo can be seen.]() *Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Shutterstock* Last week, ChatGPT maker OpenAI issued what seems like a frightening memo about an "unprecedented cyber incident" involving cutting-edge AI models [breaking loose]() and hacking another company. As the [AI lab tells it](), a group of next-generation AI models — including one that hasn't even been disclosed to the public yet — had busted out of their secure testing environment and into a production database owned by the machine learning startup Hugging Face. "It's quite mind-blowing that all of this happened autonomously!" Hugging Face CEO [Clement Delangue tweeted](), seemingly backing the story. "The investigation is ongoing, and we'll share more learnings from what might be the first incident of its kind!" Mainstream press took the industry's story and ran with it, issuing a flurry of anxious dispatches fretting about dangerous AI. One [*CBS* headline]() called it "very alarming," while [*NBC* fretted]() that it was "just the start" of an ominous trend. Look beyond the alarmist headlines, however, and you'll find a familiar pattern: a massive tech company using scare tactics to manipulate public opinion. As assistant professor of computer science at Cornell University [John Thickstun observes]() for the *Guardian*, this isn't OpenAI's first time peddling the "scary AI" narrative. Back in February of 2019 — way before the public release of ChatGPT — the company announced GPT-2, then a cutting-edge large language model. But GPT-2, the company insisted, was too dangerous to release to the dimwitted public, a pronouncement which fed the AI hypebeast and went on to secure OpenAI a cool $1 billion investment from Microsoft. "This was an early example of a pattern in OpenAI's communications," Thickstun explains: "loudly proclaim how dangerous AI is, and investors will hear how powerful it is." Whether the tale of OpenAI's rogue agent stands up to scrutiny remains to be seen, but there are reasons to be skeptical. If OpenAI's models really were actually gnawing on the wires of other American companies, it would present a substantial threat to economic activity that any Justice Department worth its salt would want to shut down (maybe not *this* iteration of the Justice Department, but you get the idea.) And as AI labs go, OpenAI is [notoriously secure]() both from prying eyes outside and internal threats within its halls. Sure, it's possible OpenAI has overstated its own internal safeguards as a kind of security theater. But on the flipside, OpenAI is now a [major AI contractor]() for the US Pentagon, a relationship which demands cutting edge security practice. It likewise follows the broader AI industry's playbook. Anthropic, the company behind Claude, has deployed similar rhetoric, warning of a similar breakout in which a rogue AI agent [escaped its cage]() all on its lonesome. In one strange instance, the company's billionaire co-founder Chris Olah even [warned the Pope]() that the Vatican needs to help stop rogue AI from "dominating humanity." **More on OpenAI:** *[Man Sues OpenAI, Saying ChatGPT Almost Killed Him With Horrendously Dangerous Medical Advice]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()