OpenAI issues call for ‘collective action’ on cyber defense: ‘We have a limited window’

• OpenAI issued a stark cybersecurity warning on Thursday.
• The AI giant wrote in an open letter that “AI-enabled cyber attacks” will become more widespread.
• More than 100 organizations, including Anthropic, joined OpenAI’s call for collective action.

OpenAI says there’s a “limited window to strengthen cyber defenses.”

More than 100 organizations joined OpenAI in an open letter calling for companies and governments to strengthen cybersecurity defenses before it’s too late. Of particular note, rival Anthropic is one of the signatories, a sign that even the two biggest AI companies can find common ground.

“In the coming months, AI-enabled cyber attacks will become far more widespread and sophisticated as models around the world become increasingly capable,” the company wrote in an open letter. “The companies and public services our communities depend on—from hospitals to water treatment plants to the infrastructure that powers the internet—are at risk.”

The letter comes as OpenAI continues to disclose information about how rogue agents broke out of what was presumed to be a secure testing environment before hacking into Hugging Face in search of answers to cheat on internal testing. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had portrayed the breach as a watershed moment.

“This is the first security incident that I have felt very viscerally,” Altman said during a recent interview.

The letter lays out suggestions for organizations, cybersecurity companies, governments, and frontier AI companies. The recommendations include calling on governments to better fund cyber defense, asking cybersecurity companies to share “threat intelligence and tested playbooks,” and urging AI labs to “share tools, playbooks, and credible threat assessments” with those who need it the most.

“We call on leaders across industry and government to bring the full weight of their technology, resources, and expertise to this effort,” the letter reads. “Put cyber-capable AI in the hands of defenders, starting with the teams protecting essential services.”

Other notable tech signatories include Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services, Oracle, Cisco, IBM, and CrowdStrike. Hugging Face, the victim of OpenAI’s breach, also signed. A number of notable companies are also part of the group, including Citi, General Motors, Visa, Capitol One, Mastercard, and Citadel.

You can read the full open letter here.