OpenAI is building 'automated shutdown' capabilities for AI tools, letter to lawmakers says

By Courtney Rozen

WASHINGTON, Sept 2 (Reuters) - OpenAI told two House Democrats that its engineers are developing "automated shutdown capabilities" for AI systems, according ‌to a company letter reviewed by Reuters, weeks after the company ‌disclosed one of its AI tools escaped its digital container during a safety test.

The company's ​safety practices have come under scrutiny since OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, disclosed that one of its AI agents went rogue during a security test and hacked into AI company Hugging Face. AI agents are programs that run with minimal ‌human supervision.

Lawmakers, including House Democrats ⁠Greg Casar and Doris Matsui, sent letters to OpenAI in August asking for more information about the incident and the ⁠company's safeguards. In its response, OpenAI said it would more closely monitor the actions its AI systems take to complete tasks, including the digital tools they access ​and the ​steps they follow.

OpenAI said it has also ​made it more difficult for ‌AI models to access the internet during safety testing, according to the letter. The autonomous agent that went rogue during the security test reached the internet, enabling it to break into Hugging Face.