Casar Leads Demand for Information From Open AI About Security Incident

WASHINGTON - Today, Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) led 28 members of Congress demanding OpenAI disclose additional information about a "deeply troubling cybersecurity incident" in which a frontier model exploited a security vulnerability to access the Internet without permission and hack into another organization.

In a letter to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the members write: "While OpenAI has disclosed some information about the incident, your company has yet to release the relevant logs and significant questions remain unanswered. Given the serious risk that frontier AI models can pose, it is imperative we have a detailed understanding of how this security incident unfolded, including any potential negligence on the part of OpenAI."

The members demand that Altman release the logs regarding the incident and answer a series of detailed oversight questions including: how many times the model or similar models obtained access to the open internet from a training environment without authorization; whether internal or external actors warned the company about risks of such an incident; at what point the company could have halted the incident; whether OpenAI has observed models attempting to cheat, game, or defeat its evaluations in other tests; whether any model has taken actions to undermine OpenAI's ability to control, align, or oversee future models; and what steps OpenAI is taking to implement stronger misalignment safeguards.

A full copy of the letter, including more than 23 questions, is available here.

The letter to OpenAI is co-led by Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA) and signed by U.S. Representatives Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03), Nanette Diaz Barragán (CA-44), Becca Balint (VT-AL), Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Angie Craig (MN-02), Jasmine Crockett (TX-30), April McClain Delaney (MD-06), Chris Deluzio (PA-17), Bill Foster (IL-11), Valerie P. Foushee (NC-04), Jesús G. "Chuy" García (IL-04), Sylvia R. Garcia (TX-29), Adelita S. Grijalva (AZ-07), Val Hoyle (OR-04), Jonathan L. Jackson (IL-01), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Ro Khanna (CA-17), Summer L. Lee (PA-12), Stephen F. Lynch (MA-08), Jennifer L. McClellan (VA-04), James P. McGovern (MA-02), Delia C. Ramirez (IL-03), Patrick Ryan (NY-18), Suhas Subramanyam (VA-10), Paul D. Tonko (NY-20), Nydia M. Velázquez (NY-07), and George Whitesides (CA-27).

###

Congressman Greg Casar represents Texas's 35th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, which runs down I-35 from East Austin to Hays County to the West Side of San Antonio. A labor organizer and son of Mexican immigrants, Casar serves as the Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus for the 119th Congress. He also serves on the Committee on Education and Labor and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability.