Hugging Face was recently the victim of a rogue AI attack by OpenAI that has alarmed cybersecurity experts. The CEO of Hugging Face has called for OpenAI to donate $100 million in compute to the company, though it’s unclear whether that will ever happen. The Hugging Face CEO, Clement Delangue, gave his first interview since the incident on Friday to CNN. And Delangue’s answer to questions about possible legal action against OpenAI is pretty interesting. It seems Delangue is hinting that his company isn’t big enough to really take on the frontier AI companies in court. But if they donate $100 million in compute, they have nothing to worry about anyway. “You’re asking OpenAI as part of it for them to commit $100 million in compute to help the Hugging Face community to build powerful cyber defenses,” CNN host Kate Bolduan asked Friday. “Has OpenAI responded to that?”
Delangue said they were having “good conversations” with OpenAI and that the company had been a good partner even before this intrusion. But then he pivoted into his suggestion that there could be serious consequences for OpenAI in this situation.
“Everyone has to remember that this cyberattack is a crime. This is illegal. And we have to find a way to make sure these things don’t happen more regularly,” said Delangue. “And so I think they understood kind of like the seriousness of this event and are trying to take measures that are aligned with the seriousness of this event.” CNN’s Bolduan emphasized that this was an unprecedented event and that cyberattacks are crimes. She then asked what will happen if Hugging Face doesn’t get a $100 million commitment from OpenAI. Specifically, she asked whether Hugging Face might consider legal action.
