“Less Regulated Than Sandwiches”: MIT Prof. Calls for Oversight as OpenAI Agent Hacks Other Firms

Artificial intelligence tools are quickly advancing in sophistication and capabilities, raising alarm among researchers and industry figures who say the technology needs to be more tightly regulated. This comes as OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, recently disclosed that one of its experimental AI agents went rogue and secretly hacked into the infrastructure of several other companies in what was supposed to be a controlled test. Over 1,100 scientists and senior employees at top AI firms have called on the U.S. government to back international efforts to “deliberately pace” the development of the world’s most advanced AI systems.

“What we’re talking about now are AI systems that also have goals on their own that they can actively go out and pursue in the world,” says AI researcher Max Tegmark, a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tegmark says OpenAI’s rogue agent is a “canary in the coal mine” of where the technology is headed as Silicon Valley leaders seek to “replace humans.”