Warning shot or publicity stunt – how worried should we be about the OpenAI hack?

This event is the latest in a string of worrying and weird examples of AI agents going rogue.

In recent research, the UK’s AI Security Institute (AISI) found frontier AI models are so fixated on completing tasks they “cheated” in tests to achieve their goals.

The research from AISI came with this worrying warning: “A model that pursues a goal through unintended or unauthorised means may cause harm, particularly in high-stakes use cases.”

Inevitably, this OpenAI hack has further fuelled fears of what could happen if AI agents are let loose. Could they go rogue on a larger scale and cause some sort of disaster?

This is particularly concerning with AI being used increasingly in warfare as seen in Iran and Ukraine.

Ciaran Martin, former head of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, offered a calmer view.

“It is a bit of a leap to go from this incident to saying that AI agents are going to take over drones and start killing people,” he said.

But for Martin, and many others, the story is undoubtedly another vivid example of something that 2026 is teaching us fast:

AI agents are now very good hackers – and that is something we have to prepare for, urgently.