What in the World

OpenAI went rogue. What now?

July 27, 2026·8 min
Episode Description from the Publisher

The headlines do sound slightly like the plot of a sci-fi film… but Open AI recently announced that one of its most advanced AI models went ‘rogue’ - and hacked a start-up called Hugging Face. The cyber attack, which the ChatGPT-maker called ‘unprecedented’, took place even though the AI model was being tested in a controlled environment. Open AI says they’re still investigating and they want to implement what they learn from this to stop it happening again.But how was the AI model able to do this in the first place? And more importantly… should we be worried about AI chatbots taking over?BBC Tech reporter Laura Cress gives us the lowdown on how OpenAI’s model managed to hack a company - and what safeguards governments and AI companies are putting in place to combat this.Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: whatintheworld@bbc.co.uk WhatsApp: +44 330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Emma-Louise Amanshia Producers: William Lee Adams and Chelsea Coates Editor: Emily Horler

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