22 Jul 2026 · 02:45 UTC

OpenAI says AI models escaped containment to hack Hugging Face

OpenAI called it an “unprecedented cyber incident” after its AI models broke out of their sandbox to hack an AI startup during a security evaluation. OpenAI disclosed Tuesday that a combination of its AI models, including GPT-5.6 Sol and a more capable unreleased model, escaped its testing environment and hacked AI startup Hugging Face last week to cheat on a test meant to measure their capabilities. In a blog post, OpenAI said the evaluation was designed to operate in a highly isolated environment with restricted network access. The models, however, found a way to gain internet access through a zero-day vulnerability in an internally-hosted third party software, OpenAI said. “After gaining Internet access, the models inferred that Hugging Face potentially hosted models, datasets and solutions for ExploitGym,” it said. “Knowing this, the model searched for and successfully found ways to gain access to secret information that it could use to cheat the evaluation.”