OpenAI commits $1 billion to cyberdefense effort amid AI safety scrutiny

Sept 3 (Reuters) - OpenAI said on Thursday it would commit $1 billion in subsidized access to its AI cybersecurity tools, training and technical support for organizations that protect critical services, as concerns grow over increasingly sophisticated AI-enabled cyberattacks.

• OpenAI has faced increased scrutiny since its own AI agent breached systems at open-source platform Hugging Face during a July test and attempted to hide its actions. Similar concerns have emerged at rival Anthropic. Both firms are preparing for mega IPOs.

• OpenAI on Thursday, alongside the cybersecurity initiative, also unveiled Astra, a new AI model it described as its most capable yet but said can at times attempt to evade human monitoring.

• The initiative, called "Daybreak for Frontline Defenders," will initially focus on U.S. operators of essential services including water utilities, electric grid operators, state and local governments, community banks and nonprofits, with plans to expand to partner countries in coming weeks, the company said.

• This comes as OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon last week joined more than 100 companies in warning that time is running short to strengthen cyber defenses before AI-driven attacks become more widespread.

• "In the coming months, AI-enabled cyber attacks will become far more widespread and sophisticated as models around the world become increasingly capable," OpenAI said on Thursday.

• "Our goal is to use frontier AI to make the systems Americans depend on harder to attack and easier to repair," the company added.

• OpenAI said in August it is slowing down the pace of its AI model development while it overhauls its research and training systems.

(Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Mexico City; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)