According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, last summer, “hundreds” of users globally were detected or otherwise known to be asking ChatGPT how to make poisons and bioweapons. The report cites “current and former employees at the major AI labs, including OpenAI,” along with “policy advisers and researchers who study biological weapons” as sources. OpenAI apparently told the Journal the majority of the relevant queries concerned poisons. The report doesn’t fully spell out the exact nature of these detections of violating queries, but it strongly implies that these were in-the-wild uses of ChatGPT, not red flag exercises. And apparently they were later shown to real scientists and defense experts to check for ChatGPT’s accuracy and helpfulness about these problematic topics. “Biology and terrorism experts later reviewed the exchanges for ChatGPT and judged some as deadly accurate, said people familiar with the matter,” the Journal says. The actual instructions are described as being meted out “patiently,” and at the skill level of a high school student. The users were banned for this behavior, but the Journal says the authorities weren’t notified. OpenAI told the Journal that queries along these lines are sent to law enforcement when they’re deemed to be credible, real-world dangers.