Senate Hearing Weighs Threats From Unrestrained AI Agents After OpenAI Hack

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, Legal Advocates for Safe Science and Technology, or LASST, filed a lawsuit in a California court alleging that OpenAI violated the state’s computer-access law in the Hugging Face incident in July. The group is seeking an injunction barring OpenAI and its AI agents from accessing third-party computer systems without permission, rather than monetary damages. WIRED reported that OpenAI says the lawsuit is “completely without merit,” while acknowledging that the Hugging Face breach was a serious incident.

The Hugging Face incident, in which OpenAI agents accessed Hugging Face systems without authorization, loomed large over a Senate Homeland Security & Government Affairs subcommittee hearing on Wednesday titled “Rogue AI: Securing the Homeland Against AI Agent Attacks.” OpenAI cofounder and CEO Sam Altman was invited to testify but declined to appear at the hearing, according to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., chairman of the subcommittee.

Hawley said the accelerating number of AI-related cyber incidents raised questions about whether developers should face liability when their systems cause damage.

“Why shouldn’t we just say it’s a standard doctrine of American law?” Hawley said.