OpenAI's Internal AI Details Stolen in 2023 Breach

FILE PHOTO: AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and robot miniature in this illustration taken, June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and robot miniature in this illustration taken, June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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OpenAI's Internal AI Details Stolen in 2023 Breach

FILE PHOTO: AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and robot miniature in this illustration taken, June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and robot miniature in this illustration taken, June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

A hacker gained access to the internal messaging systems at OpenAI last year and stole details about the design of the company's artificial intelligence technologies, the New York Times reported on Thursday.
The hacker lifted details from discussions in an online forum where employees talked about OpenAI's latest technologies, the report said, citing two people familiar with the incident.
However, they did not get into the systems where OpenAI, the firm behind chatbot sensation ChatGPT, houses and builds its AI, the report added.
Microsoft Corp-backed OpenAI did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
OpenAI executives informed both employees at an all-hands meeting in April last year and the company's board about the breach, according to the report, but executives decided not to share the news publicly as no information about customers or partners had been stolen.
OpenAI executives did not consider the incident a national security threat, believing the hacker was a private individual with no known ties to a foreign government, the report said. The San Francisco-based company did not inform the federal law enforcement agencies about the breach, it added.
OpenAI in May said it had disrupted five covert influence operations that sought to use its AI models for "deceptive activity" across the internet, the latest to stir safety concerns about the potential misuse of the technology.
The Biden administration was poised to open up a new front in its effort to safeguard the US AI technology from China and Russia with preliminary plans to place guardrails around the most advanced AI Models including ChatGPT, Reuters earlier reported, citing sources.
In May, 16 companies developing AI pledged at a global meeting to develop the technology safely at a time when regulators are scrambling to keep up with rapid innovation and emerging risks.



Amazon Must Comply with US Agency's Pregnancy Bias Probe, Judge Rules

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Boves, France, May 13, 2019. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Boves, France, May 13, 2019. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo
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Amazon Must Comply with US Agency's Pregnancy Bias Probe, Judge Rules

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Boves, France, May 13, 2019. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Boves, France, May 13, 2019. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo

A New York federal judge has ordered Amazon.com to comply with a subpoena from a US civil rights agency investigating claims that the online retailer discriminated against pregnant warehouse workers.

US District Judge Lorna Schofield in Manhattan late Thursday rejected Amazon's claims that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) subpoena was too broad and sought irrelevant information.

The EEOC is seeking data on requests that pregnant workers at five US warehouses made for accommodations such as limits on heavy lifting and additional breaks, and whether Amazon granted or denied them, Reuters reported.
The commission's probe was prompted by complaints from five women who say they faced pregnancy discrimination while working at Amazon warehouses in New Jersey, Connecticut, North Carolina, and California.

Amazon provided the EEOC with more than 200,000 pages of data in response to the subpoena, but not the specific information requested by the agency, according to court filings.

Schofield in her ruling said the information sought in the subpoenas was necessary for the EEOC to determine whether Amazon engaged in illegal discrimination. The judge gave Amazon until Aug. 9 to comply with the subpoena.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. An EEOC spokesman declined to comment.

In 2022, a New York state agency filed an administrative complaint accusing Amazon of requiring pregnant and disabled warehouse workers to take unpaid leaves of absence, even if they were capable of working, instead of providing accommodations. That case is pending.

Amazon has denied wrongdoing and said it strives to support it workers, but acknowledged in a statement responding to the New York complaint that "we don't always get it right."

The EEOC launched its probe last year and issued a subpoena seeking five categories of information, including data on accommodations Amazon provided to warehouse workers with disabilities. At the time, federal law only required companies to provide the same accommodations to pregnant workers that they gave to employees with disabilities.

A law passed later last year mandates that employers accommodate workers' pregnancies regardless of how they treat workers with disabilities.