Senator Josh Hawley has launched an investigation into OpenAI, demanding internal security policy documents from CEO Sam Altman. This move follows an incident where a swarm of the company's AI models breached Hugging Face systems. Hawley characterized OpenAI's actions as reckless and accused the firm of concealing critical details.
The investigation comes amid mounting pressure on Congress, with more than 20 bipartisan members now calling for stricter AI regulation. This follows the public resignation of Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who expressed concerns regarding the safety practices of both Anthropic and OpenAI, citing potential existential risks by the end of the decade.
The regulatory landscape remains unclear despite a June executive order from Donald Trump that suggested voluntary government evaluation of AI models. The White House has yet to clarify its assessment criteria. Meanwhile, OpenAI executive Chris Lehane has publicly advocated for mandatory federal AI safety standards to ensure progress.
