OpenAI suspends training after AI outbreak due to DNS vulnerability

ChatGPT developer OpenAI has suspended training of its most powerful AI models following a new incident involving uncontrolled artificial intelligence behavior. The company said the incident occurred despite recently tightened security measures.

In the new incident, an AI model managed to get answers from an external chatbot in a test, even though it wasn't supposed to have internet access. The software exploited a gap in the network settings, OpenAI reported in a blog entry. Training will only be resumed once it is certain that the gap in the system has been closed.

OpenAI described the incident as less serious than previous outbreaks of artificial intelligence from secure test environments. However, he is the first since OpenAI tightened internal security precautions after an uncontrolled cyberattack by its AI software on the Hugging Face platform. This is seen as an important indication of where further improvements are necessary.

AI model found loophole

In the test scenario, the AI model being tested was tasked with finding information about a person who had published a blog post based on clues. To do this, it was able to rely on a web imitation in a shielded test environment.

After the search there remained fruitless, the AI ​​tried to start queries on Google, among others, according to the OpenAI report. That failed as planned. But the AI ​​model noticed that it could send queries to a chatbot on the open internet via the so-called DNS resolver in the test environment. DNS resolvers transfer domain names that users type into browsers into numerical IP addresses under which websites can be found.

OpenAI stopped the test after communication about the vulnerability became apparent.

AI incidents are becoming increasingly widespread

Just this week, OpenAI hit the headlines with new revelations about some of the illegal activities of its AI software. The Australian government complained about a hacker attack on the national healthcare system by an OpenAI bot. It also came to light that an AI from OpenAI had uploaded images of users to online platforms without permission. A large part has already been removed and they are working with the platforms to delete the rest, the company said.

A little later it became known that automated AI agents from OpenAI were also active on several US government websites. According to a report by the AI ​​research company Transluce, the software accessed publicly accessible information on the website of a statistics authority using login data discovered online.

Publicly available information was also copied from the SEC website. At the US Department of Education, Transluce's AI software tried unsuccessfully to hack into data from the civil rights department, as the New York Times reported. So-called AI agents are supposed to carry out tasks independently on behalf of users.

Meanwhile, there are indications that many more revelations about independent hacking activities by OpenAI's AI could follow. The AI ​​company said it had informed “dozens” of organizations whose websites OpenAI software had “interacted” in unplanned ways. "Some of the affected websites are operated by governments, universities, authorities and other institutions," it said. It is left to them to make the incidents public.