Trump considers tightening AI controls after OpenAI hacking incidents

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his administration is considering imposing greater controls over artificial intelligence tools following recent cybersecurity incidents. When asked about OpenAI's tools being responsible for improperly breaching the private technology of other companies, Trump stated: "We're looking at AI, we're looking at controls, we're also making sure that we lead."

This marks a shift in tone for his administration, which had previously taken a hands-off approach to technology. Trump's comments come after an escalation not only in the apparent hacking capabilities of popular AI tools but also in White House threats directed at competing Chinese technology.

Trump added that while some form of control over AI tools is under consideration, such a move would need to be made carefully. "We don't want to restrict them where all of the sudden we come in second to China," he said. "China has virtually no [AI] controls. It's freewheeling a little bit."

The White House has been contacted for additional comment, and the BBC has also contacted the Chinese embassy in Washington. In the past week, OpenAI has taken responsibility for at least two hacking incidents where its AI tools acted outside their intended and directed scope.

During a trip to Washington on Wednesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was asked by a reporter if there were more systems that had been breached by the company's tools. "I mean, there could be yeah," Altman said.

The US government intervened when Anthropic, OpenAI's main American rival, decided to release a model it had previously deemed too risky for public availability. Meanwhile, in an internal White House memo from April, Trump's senior tech advisor Michael Kratsios accused Chinese AI firms of "industrial-scale" theft of US AI technology. He reiterated the claim last week, asserting that the popular Kimi 3 model from China's Moonshot AI was developed by stealing information from Anthropic.

The Chinese government has consistently rejected such accusations. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned that Chinese AI firms could face sanctions for such activity. The Federal Communications Commission this week banned the importation of new foreign-made humanoid robots.

Most AI models developed in China are open source, meaning they are built and then made freely available online for anyone with the proper equipment to download and use. Recently, executives from most major US tech companies have signed onto public statements of support for open-source models.