The Download: OpenAI’s chief research officer explains its hacking response

This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. Two months after OpenAI’s agents hacked into the computers of AI company Hugging Face, the company is still dealing with the fallout. Last week brought news of another hack, this time into Australia’s national health-care system, which the government says OpenAI did not report for 84 days.

But OpenAI insists it is not on the back foot. In many ways, the buck stops with Chen. I sat down with him to talk about the fallout from the hacks, what his company is doing about it, and why he thinks things are not as bad as they seem.

Here’s what he told me about making models safer—and why the world is better off with OpenAI in it. On Monday, MIT Technology Review hosted an exclusive Roundtables conversation about our investigation into the deadly failures of the US’s “virtual wall” of border surveillance towers. Editor-in-chief Mat Honan, senior AI reporter James O’Donnell, and senior reporter for features and investigations Eileen Guo discussed what the investigation reveals about border surveillance technology and the people who have died in the borderlands.

The full event is now available to watch on demand. Subscribe to MIT Technology Review for exclusive access to the discussion and all our other Roundtables. Read the full “Dying on Camera” investigation here.

When Shubnam saw an Instagram video of a Delhi protest they had attended, they realized a content creator wearing Meta smart glasses had recorded them surreptitiously. The mocking reel drew millions of views, along with transphobic abuse and AI-generated memes. Experts warn that many others will experience similar ordeals as smart glasses go mainstream.

The risks are particularly acute in India, where covert recording and the circulation of images without consent are already pervasive. The bigger issue is that the smart glasses aren’t just being used to turn ordinary people into targets of viral “pranks.” They’re also becoming a tool of police surveillance. This is our latest story to become an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.