Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has opened an investigation into the reported hacking incident in which hundreds of rogue OpenAI agents attacked an open-source artificial intelligence platform called Hugging Face this summer.
The investigation comes amid intense bipartisan backlash against frontier AI models, which reached a new high this week after a former researcher at Anthropic admitted the top AI companies are aware that AI “could kill us all by the end of the decade.” Hawley is launching the investigation in light of those concerns.
“I am investigating your AI agents’ hack of Hugging Face in July 2026 in light of new, disturbing evidence regarding the incident,” the senator wrote in a letter. “My investigation will probe this AI hacking incident, along with growing allegations of the existential risk of new AI products.”
Hawley, in his capacity as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Disaster Management, sent the letter to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Wednesday. The letter was first reported by Axios on Thursday.
In July, OpenAI publicly disclosed that its AI models autonomously hacked into Hugging Face’s servers for several days. The extent of the attack was later revealed when an independent review found some 700 rogue OpenAI agents were responsible. Additionally, about 1,200 agents exchanged upwards of 70,000 messages and files on an unsanctioned message board leading up to the attack.
Hawley is pressing OpenAI on how it could have let the security breach happen.
“Such evidence of autonomous collusion and subversion of human oversight is alarming enough, but greater still is the evidence that OpenAI knew that the AI agents were exhibiting rogue behavior and let the evaluations continue anyway,” Hawley said, later accusing the company of being “reckless” for failing to prevent the hacking incident.
“There are immediate questions about the consequences of these hacks from rogue AI agents,” he said. “What happens to critical infrastructure, banks, and utilities if AI agents hack into their systems? How can personal data of millions of Americans be properly safeguarded? And who is held [liable] when AI goes rogue?”
The Senate Republican gave Altman until Oct. 1 to respond to his request for documents and information regarding OpenAI’s involvement in the Hugging Face hack.
“The American people deserve to know the details of what went on in the Hugging Face incident and other incidents of AI models going rogue,” Hawley wrote. “This investigation will seek those answers.”
OPENAI BACKS SLEW OF CALIFORNIA AI BILLS WHILE CALLING FOR NATIONAL REGULATION
The investigation shows how concerned federal lawmakers in both parties are about the security incident. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sent a similar letter to Altman this week.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has been calling for AI restrictions and guardrails in light of recent developments. Alongside Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), Sanders is leading a proposed bill that would ban artificial superintelligence and temporarily pause advanced AI development. The bill has not been introduced in either chamber of Congress yet.