OpenAI is facing mounting pressure from Capitol Hill due to the attack its agents carried out on Hugging Face, while lawmakers voice widening concerns about AI’s potentially existential risks.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., criticized OpenAI leadership for what he described as “reckless” activities leading up to the Hugging Face breach, and accused the company of withholding important details from a technical report it released in late August.
The Chair of the Subcommittee on Disaster Management kicked off an investigation into the incident “in light of new, disturbing evidence,” he wrote in a letter Tuesday to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
“My investigation will probe this AI hacking incident, along with growing allegations of the existential risk of new AI products,” he wrote.
OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment on the merits of Hawley’s probe or the extent to which it intends to comply.
The lawmaker is seeking detailed internal communications, exhaustive technical information and reasoning behind OpenAI leaders’ decisionmaking and activities surrounding the hack by Oct. 1.
“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,” Hawley wrote.