--- title: "Sam Altman Now Trying to Gain Control of Electric Grid" description: "Riding the wave of hype from the OpenAI-Hugging Face hack, Sam Altman is now trying to worm his way into the US electrical grid." date: "2026-09-13" modified: "2026-09-13" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/openai-sam-altman-chatgpt-hack-electrical-grid-hype" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Cybersecurity" - "Ethics" - "Future Society" - "Hacking" - "Machine Learning" - "The Industrialists" --- # Sam Altman Now Trying to Gain Control of Electric Grid ![An illustration of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman with sparks between his hands.]() *Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/Futurism* Armed with sordid tales of rogue AI agents escaping containment, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has found plenty of success using scare tactics to call for friendly regulation in the name of AI safety. Now, it seems Altman is riding the wave of AI fearmongering to gin up some new business partners: the electric utility executives whose companies make up the US power grid. As first reported [by *Politico*](), the CEO of the company behind ChatGPT held a series of clandestine meetings with leaders from top electric utility companies including Duke Energy, Exelon, Southern Co, and NextEra Energy**,** starting in July. One of the most recent discussions took place on Wednesday in Colorado, during an annual meeting hosted by the Edison Electric Institute. Dominating the agenda, *Politico* notes, were discussions on electrical grid security, evidently spurred by the OpenAI-Hugging Face debacle, in which rogue AI agents allegedly broke free of their research environment, accessed the internet, and hacked into another AI company. Though the incident spawned plenty of commentary around the pace of AI development and the advanced state of OpenAI's models, the flow of information has been decidedly one-sided, with most of the details coming from [OpenAI itself](). As the [*New York Times* reported](), third-party safety researchers investigating the incident after the fact were only given a few days to access the reams of data generated by the hack, severely limiting their findings. That said, OpenAI has an obvious incentive to play up its own AI's supposedly terrifying capabilities, while suppressing or ignoring evidence that contradicts its own narrative: that of rogue AI agents capable of threatening the US energy grid. To give just one example, OpenAI's narration of the Hugging Face incident relies almost entirely on its agents' "chains-of-thought," where an AI model essentially generates statements explaining how it rationalized certain decisions. That sounds fine in theory, but researchers have found [plenty of]() [evidence]() showing that chains-of-thought aren't reliable at narrating the actual moves made by natural language processors. Despite the unanswered question around chain-of-thought reasoning, OpenAI is using the incident to [lobby for regulatory safeguards]() that would cement its role as the authority around AI development. This being the case, the timing of OpenAI's energy security meetings is hard to overlook. As *Politico* notes in its reporting on these meetings, Altman has been hawking his company's own cybersecurity services to top utility executives — conveniently riding the hype of the Hugging Face incident to secure a seat at one of the most important tables in the country. **More on Altman:** *[Data Center Backlash Has Officially Rattled Sam Altman]()* ## 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]()