In a significant cybersecurity breach last year, a hacker infiltrated OpenAI’s internal messaging systems and stole detailed information about the design of the company’s advanced artificial intelligence technologies, according to a report by The New York Times on Thursday.
The intruder accessed an online forum where OpenAI employees discussed their latest technologies, lifting sensitive details from their conversations. However, the hacker did not breach the systems where OpenAI, the company behind the revolutionary chatbot ChatGPT, develops and maintains its AI models.
OpenAI executives disclosed the incident to employees during an all-hands meeting in April last year and informed the company’s board of directors. Despite the severity of the breach, executives chose not to publicize the incident, as no customer or partner information was compromised.
The company assessed that the breach did not pose a national security threat, believing the hacker to be a private individual without connections to any foreign governments. Consequently, OpenAI decided against notifying federal law enforcement agencies about the incident.
In a related development, OpenAI announced in May that it had thwarted five covert influence operations attempting to misuse its AI models for deceptive activities online. This incident has further fueled safety concerns regarding the potential misuse of advanced AI technologies.
