{"id":144804,"date":"2026-08-19T12:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/144804\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T12:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:04:13","slug":"openai-slows-down-training-after-its-ai-carried-out-hack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/144804\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI slows down training after its AI carried out hack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">OpenAI says it has slowed down training some of its most advanced AI models to improve security.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In <a data-ylk=\"slk:a blog post;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/openai.com\/index\/pacing-model-development-cyber-capabilities\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">a blog post<\/a>, the ChatGPT-maker said it was introducing new measures after its AI agents autonomously <a data-ylk=\"slk:bypassed safeguards and hacked the tech start-up Hugging Face;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c3ek3gvdnj3o?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">bypassed safeguards and hacked the tech start-up Hugging Face<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It said training would be slowed for two weeks while it puts the upgrades in place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;The capabilities of frontier models are rapidly accelerating,&#8221; the company said. &#8220;Our ability to understand&#8230;and secure them must stay ahead.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Claude-maker Anthropic and Facebook-owner Meta reported <a data-ylk=\"slk:similar kinds of hacks;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cz7dl7w8y7po?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">similar kinds of hacks<\/a> by their AI in the weeks following the initial announcement by OpenAI that some of its models had hacked Hugging Face.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But the firm said it had not stopped AI development altogether. Instead, the pause would be taking place on &#8220;reinforcement learning training on our latest models&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This is a training method in which AI models improve through direct feedback, which improves their ability to carry out tasks and respond to users more effectively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The company it would also expand the systems it uses to monitor dangerous behaviour, and introduce additional safety checks before resuming larger-scale training.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Model progress is now extremely rapid,&#8221; OpenAI&#8217;s chief executive Sam Altman <a data-ylk=\"slk:posted on X;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/sama\/status\/2089787807611195475\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">posted on X<\/a> about the measures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We always said we would take action if we felt that model capabilities were outstripping the pace of safety.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The pause was met with cautious optimism by some in the AI sphere &#8211; though others remained sceptical.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Professor Gina Neff, executive director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge, said OpenAI was making &#8220;the case for safety by press release&#8221; and questioned whether voluntary company safeguards were sufficient without greater government oversight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Which is it: OpenAI can be trusted to voluntarily put in place safeguards that actually work, or they are pushing forward with choices to make software that puts society at greater risk,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Very happy to see this,&#8221; <a data-ylk=\"slk:posted AI analyst Zvi Mowshowitz;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheZvi\/status\/2089819155708928081\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">posted AI analyst Zvi Mowshowitz<\/a>, though he added that &#8220;details&#8221; and &#8220;follow-through&#8221; from the initial measures mentioned were also important in order to take a full view on the plans.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Unprecedented&#8217; cyber-attack<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On 21 July OpenAI announced some of its AI agents &#8211; software systems which can operate alone to accomplish tasks after human instruction &#8211; had been involved in what it called an &#8220;unprecedented&#8221; incident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It said the agents had appeared to bypass safeguards in a security experiment it was running and gain unauthorised access to Hugging Face.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Three other unnamed companies were also later found to have been hacked alongside the start-up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Jake Moore, global cyber-security advisor at ESET, said at the time the announcement from OpenAI could also have a competitive dimension.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He argued the tech firm may be seeking to highlight its own AI capabilities as rival Anthropic attracts growing attention for its Claude Mythos model.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It does pose the question that OpenAI are potentially chasing the marketing dream of Anthropic of late,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"A green promotional banner with black squares and rectangles forming pixels, moving in from the right. The text says: &quot;Tech Decoded: The world's biggest tech news in your inbox every Monday.&quot;\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"158\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/bbc_us_articles_995\/a1dfdc7ecc3b682696e9c2376a7a0075.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/newsletters\/zxh6cxs?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter<\/a> to follow the world&#8217;s top tech stories and trends. <a data-ylk=\"slk:Outside the UK? Sign up here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/cloud.email.bbc.com\/techdecoded-newsletter-signup\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Outside the UK? Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OpenAI says it has slowed down training some of its most advanced AI models to improve security. In&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[18044,18725,157],"class_list":["post-144804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-openai","tag-hugging-face","tag-model-capabilities","tag-openai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}