OpenAI commits $1 billion to cyberdefense effort amid AI safety scrutiny

Sept 3 (Reuters) - OpenAI said ‌on Thursday ​it ​would commit $1 billion in subsidized access to its AI cybersecurity tools, training and technical support for organizations that ‌protect critical services, as concerns grow over increasingly sophisticated AI-enabled ⁠cyberattacks.

• OpenAI has faced increased scrutiny since its own AI agent breached ‌systems at open-source platform Hugging ‌Face during a July test and attempted to hide its actions. Similar concerns have emerged at rival Anthropic. Both firms ​are preparing for mega IPOs.

• OpenAI on Thursday, alongside the cybersecurity initiative, also unveiled Astra, a new AI model it ⁠described as its most capable yet but said can at times attempt to evade human ​monitoring.

• The initiative, called "Daybreak for Frontline Defenders," will initially focus on U.S. operators of essential services including water ​utilities, electric grid operators, state and ‌local governments, community banks and nonprofits, with plans to expand to partner countries in coming weeks, the ⁠company said.

• This comes as OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon last week joined more than 100 companies in warning that time is ⁠running short to strengthen cyber defenses before AI-driven attacks become more widespread.

• "In the ​coming months, AI-enabled cyber attacks will become far more widespread and sophisticated as models around the world become increasingly capable," OpenAI said on Thursday.

• "Our goal ‌is to use frontier AI to make the systems Americans depend on harder to attack and ‌easier to repair," the company added.

• OpenAI said in August it ⁠is slowing down the pace ‌of its AI model ​development while it overhauls its research and training systems.

(Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Mexico City; Editing by ‌Shailesh Kuber)

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