A Republican-led Senate sub-committee responsible for disaster-management oversight is examining OpenAI’s response to the July Hugging Face breach, amid increasing scrutiny of the technology after high-profile incidents of artificial intelligence (AI) agents escaping controls.

 “New, disturbing evidence” sparked the probe, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Disaster Management, said in a September 9 letter to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

 OpenAI “redacted many important details” and was “reckless” in continuing testing despite detecting rogue AI behaviour, he added. Hawley directed OpenAI to provide answers and documents related to the incident by October 1, including responses to 16 detailed questions and records covering the company’s policies, procedures and handling of rogue AI activity. OpenAI bats for safety rules OpenAI said it was pushing for mandatory national AI safety requirements in the US. “The US needs mandatory, capability-based national regulation that can evolve as the technology does,” OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane said. It is urging Congress to adopt capability-based national AI safety requirements, including testing standards, independent assessments, cybersecurity protections and incident-reporting rules for the advanced AI.