Why did OpenAI's and Anthropic's AI models hack other companies?

Explainer Why did OpenAI's and Anthropic's AI models hack other companies? August 1, 20265:00 AM ET By  Huo Jingnan OpenAI and Anthropic say their models broke into other companies' systems during testing, raising security concerns amid a heated debate over how to regulate AI. Imen Ben Youssef/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Imen Ben Youssef/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images Days after OpenAI disclosed that artificial intelligence systems tunneled out of their testing environment and broke into another company, rival Anthropic disclosed that its own AI models also hacked other companies during testing. Technology OpenAI blamed a hacking event on its AI models gone rogue. Here is what to know News of the attacks, which initially went unnoticed, is reverberating across Silicon Valley and Washington amid debates over how to address the advanced cybercapabilities of AI. While the two incidents are not of the same gravity, experts say they highlight the importance of setting up rigorous testing environments for advanced models and the need for robust cyberdefenses as autonomous hacking capabilities become more widespread in the future. Human error led to Anthropic hacks  In a blog post published on Thursday, Anthropic said that in three separate incidents in recent months, AI models undergoing testing of their cybercapabilities hacked into three unsuspecting companies. Sponsor Message Anthropic said the hacks were the result of a "misunderstanding" with an outside company that set up secure testing environments known as sandboxes, which erroneously gave the models access to the internet. Anthropic said the earliest incident happened in April, but that neither it nor the affected companies, which it didn't name, were aware of the hacks until now. Anthropic said in each case, its models were given fictional targets to hack into. In one incident, a model hacked into a real company that shared a name with the fictional target and stole "several...