{"slug": "be-skeptical-of-openais-rogue-hacker-agent-story-john-thickstun", "title": "Be skeptical of OpenAI’s rogue hacker agent story | John Thickstun", "summary": "OpenAI's announcement of GPT-2 in February 2019 as too risky to release was a strategic move to signal the model's power to investors, argues researcher John Thickstun in The Guardian. Thickstun criticizes the decision as a useless announcement that hindered research without access to the model.", "body_md": "# Be skeptical of OpenAI’s rogue hacker agent story | John Thickstun\n\nBy John ThickstunSource:\n\n[The Guardian Technology](https://www.theguardian.com/us/technology)If [OpenAI](/glossary/openai) loudly proclaims how dangerous AI is, investors will hear how powerful it is. And who benefits from that?\n\nOn 14 February 2019, OpenAI announced a [language model](/glossary/language-model) called [GPT](/glossary/gpt)-2, the precursor to the models that power modern AI chatbots and agents such as [ChatGPT](/compare/chatgpt-vs-claude) and [Claude](/glossary/claude). But OpenAI declared GPT-2 was too risky to release, citing concerns about safety and abuse.\n\nI recall being annoyed at the time that OpenAI would make such a useless announcement: the risks seemed overblown, and without access to the model there wasn’t much for a researcher like me to learn about GPT-2.\n\n[Continue reading...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/24/openai-rogue-hacker)\n\nGet AI news in your inbox\n\nDaily digest of what matters in AI.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/be-skeptical-of-openais-rogue-hacker-agent-story-john-thickstun", "canonical_source": "https://www.machinebrief.com/news/be-skeptical-of-openais-rogue-hacker-agent-story-or-john-thi-uvfv", "published_at": "2026-07-24 13:00:14+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-24 13:36:37.383832+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "large-language-models", "ai-policy", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["OpenAI", "GPT-2", "ChatGPT", "Claude", "John Thickstun", "The Guardian"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/be-skeptical-of-openais-rogue-hacker-agent-story-john-thickstun", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/be-skeptical-of-openais-rogue-hacker-agent-story-john-thickstun.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/be-skeptical-of-openais-rogue-hacker-agent-story-john-thickstun.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/be-skeptical-of-openais-rogue-hacker-agent-story-john-thickstun.jsonld"}}