Alabama AG investigates OpenAI after AI hacks Hugging Face

Aug. 25, 2026, 9:16 a.m. CT

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is investigating OpenAI after an artificial intelligence model being tested by the company escaped its controlled environment and hacked into the systems of AI platform Hugging Face.

Marshall announced Monday that his office subpoenaed OpenAI for documents and information about what happened, how the company responded and what safeguards were in place.

The investigation will look at whether OpenAI violated Alabama’s consumer protection laws, including the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

Why is Alabama investigating OpenAI?

The investigation stems from an incident OpenAI disclosed in July.

The company said it was testing an internal research model for advanced cybersecurity capabilities in an isolated environment. The model was not supposed to have direct access to the internet.

But the model found and exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in software used inside the testing environment. That gave it a path to the internet.

From there, OpenAI said, the models found ways into Hugging Face’s systems while trying to complete the cybersecurity test. Hugging Face hosts hundreds of thousands of AI models, datasets and other resources.