OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar warns businesses about cybersecurity risks in Chinese AI models

Cheap AI is tempting. OpenAI’s chief financial officer would like businesses to think twice before taking the bargain. Sarah Friar, CFO of OpenAI, told a Dublin audience that companies running low-cost Chinese AI models are exposing themselves to cybersecurity risks. Her advice was blunt: stick with Western models. The warning came at the International AI Summit in Dublin on October 14, 2026. It arrives as competition between the US and China over artificial intelligence keeps intensifying, and as more businesses weigh price against provenance when choosing which models to build on. What Friar actually said Friar’s central argument focused on the dual-use nature of many Chinese open-source models. Applied to AI, that means the same model can strengthen a company’s defenses or hand attackers a powerful new weapon. She also indicated that OpenAI is keeping a close watch on advanced Chinese frontier models. Friar’s comments did not stand alone. Anthropic, one of OpenAI’s main rivals, raised similar concerns about the risks of open models at the same summit. The model OpenAI is not releasing Friar’s remarks came alongside news about OpenAI’s own work. The company is holding back a next...