Alabama Launches Investigation Into OpenAI's Hack of Hugging Face (techcrunch.com) 46
Alabama's attorney general has subpoenaed OpenAI as part of an investigation into whether inadequate safeguards contributed to an incident in which an unreleased cybersecurity model escaped its isolated environment and hacked Hugging Face. TechCrunch reports: The investigation comes weeks after OpenAI admitted that one of its unreleased and guardrail-free cybersecurity models had escaped an isolated environment, connected to the internet, and hacked AI dataset platform Hugging Face. As Reuters first reported, Hugging Face was only one of four victims of what was supposed to be "an internal evaluation" of a model with "maximal cyber capabilities," as OpenAI put it.
The press release announcing the subpoena (PDF) sent by the state's attorney general Steve Marshall said that the state was seeking to understand if OpenAI's "inability or unwillingness to ensure the safety of its products" violated the state's consumer protection laws. Earlier this month, Marshall, along with the attorneys general of 14 other states, including Florida, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Texas, sent a letter (PDF) to OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman, requesting that he and his company preserve all records related to the Hugging Face incident. The letter also asked OpenAI to "immediately cease and desist" from any internal cybersecurity evaluations. OpenAI said in a statement: "The Hugging Face incident marked an important moment for AI safety and we are conducting a thorough review along with external advisors. Once the review is complete, we will share a technical report with relevant government authorities and publish our findings publicly."
The press release announcing the subpoena (PDF) sent by the state's attorney general Steve Marshall said that the state was seeking to understand if OpenAI's "inability or unwillingness to ensure the safety of its products" violated the state's consumer protection laws. Earlier this month, Marshall, along with the attorneys general of 14 other states, including Florida, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Texas, sent a letter (PDF) to OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman, requesting that he and his company preserve all records related to the Hugging Face incident. The letter also asked OpenAI to "immediately cease and desist" from any internal cybersecurity evaluations. OpenAI said in a statement: "The Hugging Face incident marked an important moment for AI safety and we are conducting a thorough review along with external advisors. Once the review is complete, we will share a technical report with relevant government authorities and publish our findings publicly."
Alabama (Score:1)
Yeah this is definitely the most dire issue facing the citizens of Alabama.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Bottom 10 in education
Bottom 10 in gdp/per capita
Bottom 10 in life expectancy
Despite being blood red politically it takes in about $45B of taxpayer dollars from the Federal Government every year
Tommy Tuberville
Re: Alabama (Score:2)
He'll launch an investigation into a rich tech company and become a "c" in what is an a-b conversation between OpenAI and Hugging Face in hopes of extracting a large punitive fine from the former to shore up their financial situation.
Re: (Score:3)
From what I understand, he's trying to discover if the admitted breaking of federal law was due to incompetence or stupidity. Incompetence is unintentional, stupidity is willful.
I've always felt that something like this was 99% the chance of the world's worst sysadmins. How hard is it to truly isolate a computer from the internet? Unplug the damn cable if you can't figure it out any other way... The fact that this hack, Anthropic's admitted hack, and then the China hacks (that didn't hit anyone external
Re: (Score:2)
By achieving enough name recognition in the general population to win a US House or US Senate election and move to Northern Virginia for the rest of his life, returning "home" to Alabama only for reelection campaigns.
Re:Alabama (Score:5, Informative)
Education, economy, healthcare, crime, etc etc.
Re:Alabama (Score:5, Informative)
Literally anything that actually has something to do with the average Alabaman citizen.
Alabama ranks at, or near, the bottom in:
-mental health
-mental health access
-labor protections
-having a baby (bad healthcare, high costs, bad infant health rates)
-childhood nutrition
-and more
Re: (Score:2)
Any? It's better than focusing solely on something that has nothing to do with anyone in the state.
Stop Prison Death Camps (Score:2)
Re: Stop Prison Death Camps (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Alabama (Score:2)
Grandstander gonna grandstand (Score:5, Insightful)
He'll be out of office before anything could come of this... it's purely about positioning himself for the 2028 election cycle (since he lost in the primary for the US Senate seat he'll soon be out of a job). If Marshall issues a press release, it's all about political posturing; it's all he knows how to do. He certainly doesn't know how to prosecute actual crime when presented to him, such as obvious voting fraud by the former chair of the state GOP.
Sure (Score:3)
Let's subpoena OpenAI for their agent's hack, but not Anthropic for theirs. Steve Marshall really highlighting the shit quality of Alabama education, not to mention Alabama is tied for the worst Bar association and therefore the worst lawyers. No wonder his first wife killed herself.
Re: (Score:2)
OpenAI announced their hack first. Give it time before judging "why not Anthropic"...
Re: (Score:2)
If this was directly following when the hacks were announced, I might agree. It's been over a month since the announcements.
Re: (Score:2)
Give it a couple days. Not to be outdone, Anthropic will be begging Alabama to investigate them too.
Re: (Score:2)
Good luck being taken seriously.
Ironic coming from a pussified AC.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. But that does not make the hacking legal. It is still a crime top break in even when the door-lock is crap.
Raises hand to ask question... (Score:2)
"What's the order of sites it tried before hacking Hugging Face? Or was it on a short list?"
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You made my point. ;)
This wasn't an AI just wandering around seeing if it could get in anywhere. There was a plot. There was a plan. And humans trained it to have those type of intentions.
Re: Raises hand to ask question... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"I wish sarcasm was a font" - Author Unknown
Re: Raises hand to ask question... (Score:2)
Let me understand this... (Score:2, Funny)
So an AI implementation hacked an AI platform - and Alabama is investigating?
I thought Alabama was more accepting of penetration by related entities?
Potentially useful (Score:2)
For diabetics and for surgery. Ketones for someone who can't eat before surgery can be useful, and for diabetics who are trying to lose weight are *very* useful.
Part of the problem for hospital use is that most hospitals don't bother, and don't want nurses to have a multi-client tracker.
Carefull... Their Ai might be listening to you (Score:2)
and start attacking the Alabama AG.
How is this under his purview? (Score:2)
OpenAI probably needs to be shut down (Score:2)
Due to gross incompetence while handling dangerous equipment. But with a bit of luck they will get a richly deserved bankruptcy in the next months anyways.