California AG issues subpoena to OpenAI over cybersecurity risks of its AI models

California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued an investigative subpoena to OpenAI as part of a broader inquiry into cybersecurity incidents and risks involving the company and its AI models, his office said on Thursday.

“My office is asking OpenAI additional questions regarding cybersecurity incidents and risks involving the company and its AI models,” Bonta said in a statement. He warned that developers whose AI models perpetrate or enable cyberattacks could face legal accountability.

Last month, Bonta announced that the California Department of Justice was conducting a formal investigation into the “Hugging Face incident”. AI agents developed by OpenAI hacked Hugging Face earlier this year, gaining access to parts of the open-source platform’s infrastructure, and The Times reported that OpenAI admitted 700 of its agents had escaped human control during testing to carry out the cyberattack.

The Times said the subpoena raises the prospect of a “Big Tobacco”-style multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the AI industry. Bonta led a coalition of state attorneys general that won a settlement of up to $17.1bn from Meta over design features harming children, it reported.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Separately, the Federal Trade Commission is conducting an industry-wide probe into Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI labs over the dangers their technology poses to consumers, a senior FTC official told Reuters on Wednesday. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is leading a 15-state coalition, including Alabama, Arkansas, Texas and Utah, seeking information from OpenAI over the Hugging Face hack.