[German]The chatGPT provider OpenAI was the victim of a cyberattack in 2023, in which the attackers were able to access and read the internal chats between researchers and other employees of the company. However, the source code behind the OpenAI LLMs was not accessible. This was probably made public by a source who leaked the information to the New York Times.
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OpenAI, the developer of ChaptGPT
OpenAI OpenAI is a US software company trading as Inc. that was founded by Sam Altman, Elon Musk and others in December 2015. It has been researching artificial intelligence since the end of 2015. Initially, OpenAI's goal was to develop artificial intelligence on an open source basis. This has since changed; OpenAI is the company behind AI products such as ChatGPT and Microsoft's CoPilot, which are marketed commercially.
Hack in April 2023 reported
It was in April 2023 when OpenAI executives informed employees during an all-hands meeting at the company's San Francisco offices that attackers had been able to access the internal messaging system. The OpenAI board was also informed of the incident.
The attackers had access to OpenAI's internal messaging systems, including an internal online forum where employees discussed the latest OpenAI technologies. When the access was noticed, the OpenAI management decided not to make the incident public.
The reasoning was that no information about customers or partners had been stolen. The executives did not consider the incident a threat to national security, as they assumed that the hacker was a private individual with no known ties to a foreign government. The company did not notify the F.B.I. or other law enforcement agencies.
The incident probably came to light when two sources close to the company provided information to the New York Times. The NYT published the article A Hacker Stole OpenAI Secrets, Raising Fears That China Could, Too with further details on July 4, 2024.
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Discussions in the company
The incident triggered fears among OpenAI employees that foreign companies and intelligence services (e.g. China) could steal AI technology. Ultimately, this could jeopardize US national security, they said. Leopold Aschenbrenner, a technical program manager at OpenAI who was responsible for ensuring that future AI technologies do not cause serious harm, expressed his concern. Aschenbrenner sent a memo to the OpenAI board after the incident. The memo expressed concern that the company was not doing enough to prevent the Chinese government and other foreign adversaries from stealing company secrets.
The NYT article goes into more detail about the internal discussions at OpenAI and may also explain some of the turmoil surrounding OpenAI's senior management that came to light in November 2023 (see article links below).
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The Chinese … of course! Who else? President Putin? Venezuela's Maduro?
I bet it was the committee for the re-election of President Biden. The guys are running out of ideas and need the help of artificial intelligence urgently.