(Reuters) – A hacker gained access to OpenAI’s internal email systems last year and stole details about the design of the company’s artificial intelligence technologies, the New York Times reported on Thursday.
The hacker gathered details from discussions on an online forum where employees discussed OpenAI’s latest technologies, the report said, citing two people familiar with the incident.
However, they failed to penetrate the systems where OpenAI, the company behind the sensational chatbot ChatGPT, hosts and builds its AI, the report added.
OpenAI, backed by Microsoft (NASDAQ:), did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
According to the report, OpenAI executives informed employees at a town hall meeting in April last year as well as the company’s board of directors about the breach, but executives decided not to share the news publicly because no customer or partner information had been stolen.
OpenAI executives did not consider the incident a national security threat, believing the hacker was an individual with no known ties to a foreign government, the report said. The San Francisco-based company did not notify federal law enforcement agencies about the incident, it added.
OpenAI said in May it had dismantled five covert influence operations that sought to use its AI models for “deceptive activities” on the internet, the latest to raise security concerns about the potential misuse of the technology.
The Biden administration was set to open a new front in its efforts to protect U.S. AI technology from China and Russia with preliminary plans to place safeguards around the most advanced AI models, including ChatGPT, Reuters reported earlier, citing sources.
In May, 16 AI companies pledged at a global meeting to develop the technology safely as regulators struggle to keep up with rapid innovation and emerging risks.
