Politico reports:

OpenAI has met with representatives of multiple top power companies to discuss methods of securing the electrical grid, the artificial intelligence firm told POLITICO — conversations that occurred amid a continuing series of revelations about its own products’ role in a sprawling cyberattack.

CEO Sam Altman has also offered one possible solution to the cybersecurity risks: OpenAI’s own cyber services.

The energy security discussions, two of which were not previously reported, started July 20. Altman most recently met with electric utility executives Wednesday during the Edison Electric Institute’s annual meeting in Colorado Springs, Colorado, according to OpenAI and the institute.

The briefings began shortly after the artificial intelligence platform Hugging Face announced in July that an autonomous AI system had hacked its servers but before OpenAI disclosed that its own rogue agents had perpetrated the attack. Further details have emerged since then about the unprecedented breach, including a report that about 700 AI agents participated in the exploit over a seven-day period without OpenAI’s knowledge.

OpenAI’s more recent meetings have sought in part to address the risks posed by these kinds of autonomous hacks.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Altman informed the energy executives of how OpenAI is attempting to ensure that the most advanced AI models cannot be misused to threaten grid security, the company told POLITICO.

He also discussed the prospect of partnering with the companies to use AI for enhancing their cyber defenses through Daybreak, OpenAI’s $1 billion cybersecurity initiative aimed at patching vulnerabilities in critical systems. The impact of data center security on the grid was on the agenda as well. [Continue reading…]