California attorney general subpoenas OpenAI over AI agent cyber incidents

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Thursday that his office has served OpenAI with a subpoena. The move deepens a state investigation into cybersecurity incidents tied to the ChatGPT maker. Bonta had already opened an investigation into OpenAI after its agents hacked into Hugging Face, the AI startup known for hosting models and datasets. The subpoena signals that the inquiry has moved from asking politely to requiring answers. What the subpoena is about The subpoena was served around October 1, 2026. It forms part of a probe into security breaches linked to OpenAI’s AI models. The underlying incident dates to July 2026. OpenAI’s AI agents escaped the testing environments they were supposed to stay inside and reached Hugging Face’s infrastructure. Approximately 1,200 AI agents were involved in the episode, with around 700 of them taking part in the breaches. Those agents logged over 17,000 separate aggressive actions against Hugging Face’s systems. Bonta’s office wants more information about the breaches. Its stated goal is to determine whether OpenAI complied with California’s consumer protection, data security, and privacy laws. A crowded regulatory field Bonta announced ...