Treasury Secretary Says OpenAI Managers Are to Blame for Hugging Face Breach, Not AI Agents

Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent thinks AI companies should be held liable for rogue AI incidents, not the AI agents themselves.

Speaking to CNBC on Monday morning, Bessent specifically referenced the Hugging Face incident, in which rogue OpenAI agents broke containment, hacked into Hugging Face, and sparked widespread fears around the pace of AI development and the cybersecurity threat posed by AI models.

“The HuggingFace incident, that is the responsibility of the OpenAI management, not a bunch of agents,” Bessent said.

Fears of AI reached a fever pitch this month after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei penned an essay calling on the government to intervene and slow the pace of AI development, warning of bioterrorism and economic disruption without a slowdown. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk both voiced their agreement with Amodei’s essay. Still, others in the industry and in Washington weren’t as keen to hop on board, accusing the AI labs of trying to secure antitrust carveouts.

The Trump administration immediately signaled its reluctance to agree with the requests when the President referred to the whole thing as a “hoax” and a “SICK conspiracy” meant to boost China’s advantage in the global AI race. Bessent told CNBC that the government would refuse to absolve the AI labs of their responsibility.