Senators Press OpenAI Over Hugging Face Breach and AI Safety

Lawmakers from both parties pressed OpenAI for answers on Thursday, raising fresh concerns in Washington about whether advanced artificial intelligence systems can be kept under human control.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., opened an investigation into the company over an incident in which an OpenAI artificial intelligence system hacked into another AI company on its own. In a letter to OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, Hawley sought further details about the attack on AI startup Hugging Face, which the company disclosed in July. Hawley leads a Senate subcommittee with jurisdiction over disaster management.

"The American people deserve to know the details of what went on in the Hugging Face incident and other incidents of AI models going rogue," Hawley said. "This investigation will seek those answers."

Separately, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., urged Altman to immediately give federal cybersecurity agencies access to information needed to assess the safety and risks of OpenAI's models, citing the Hugging Face attack.

OpenAI spokesperson Nate Evans said the incident marked an important moment for AI safety and served as a warning about the risks accompanying increasingly capable systems. He said the company conducted an extensive investigation and published a detailed report on what happened, what it learned, and how it is strengthening its security and alignment practices.

The lawmakers' inquiries followed concerns raised this week when an Anthropic researcher said he was resigning over worries that the artificial intelligence firm and its competitors are not acting responsibly in AI development. Jacob Coxon, who said he spent three years doing research at both Anthropic and OpenAI, wrote Tuesday on the social platform X that the two companies are more focused on beating each other and global competitors than on safety.

The questions come as Congress has long been reluctant to regulate the technology industry. Members of both parties agree that more guardrails are needed, but even narrow attempts at regulation have fallen apart over the years.

A bipartisan working group on artificial intelligence formed by then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer released a report in 2024 recommending that the United States spend at least $32 billion over three years to develop artificial intelligence and implement safeguards around it, but Congress has done little to follow up. A bipartisan bill on internet safety for children has similarly stalled repeatedly.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, announced this week that he would introduce a bill to ban the development and deployment of "superintelligent AI" and pause advanced AI development until a federal regulator has established safety rules. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, will sponsor the House version.

"The leaders of the major AI companies publicly acknowledge that they do not fully understand the technology and that it is escaping their control," Sanders said. "It is irresponsible for society to allow them to move forward and make these products even more advanced."