SAN FRANCISCO: ChatGPT maker OpenAI says it will launch its new Astra AI model with stronger safeguards after a cyberattack exposed security risks involving another model. The San Francisco-based artificial intelligence (AI) giant paused some of its model development for two weeks this summer after two models it was testing were involved in a security breach of software company Hugging Face.
Although Astra "was not involved" in the incident, OpenAI has beefed up its safety measures, the company said in a blog post. "We have since implemented even stronger safeguards for Astra, including training the model to more reliably refuse harmful cyber requests and respect safety restrictions, additional protections against misuse, and monitoring that can stop potentially unauthorised activity," the blog said.
That includes classifying Astra as reaching a "critical cybersecurity threshold," which means OpenAI believes the model is capable of finding and exploiting cybersecurity gaps. "It is the first model we are designating at this level, and requires stronger safeguards during development and before release," the blog said. When OpenAI eventually launches Astra, access to certain capabilities will be limited and the most advanced capabilities will be made available to a select group of early testers, the blog said.
Concerns have increased in recent months about the capabilities of advanced AI models after incidents involving models from both OpenAI and rival developer Anthropic, though none of the models in those incidents were available to customers. Last week, more than 100 organisations around the world, including OpenAI and Anthropic, signed an open letter calling for a global effort to "strengthen cyber defences" against AI-powered cybersecurity threats.