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Sep 10, 2026

The Hugging Face hack shows what happens when AI agents work together

Nate Soares, president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, says the attack presents a narrow window for humans to act.

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The Hugging Face hack shows what happens when AI agents work together
Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images

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Nate Soares has been worried about artificial intelligence longer than almost anyone.

He's the president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute and co-author of the subtly named book, "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All."

He's watched with a sort of grim vindication, as increasingly alarming details emerge about the hack of the AI company Hugging Face by OpenAI models in development.

More than a thousand AI agents in separate testing environments, found a way to communicate — sending 70,000 messages, as they coordinated a complex effort to cheat on an evaluation — and then tried to cover their tracks.

OpenAI and third-party investigators recently released reports outlining what went wrong. Soares worries it's not enough.

More on this

The Hugging Face incident and the road ahead - From OpenAI

Brief independent investigation of agents’ behavior, reasoning and collaboration in the OpenAI / Hugging Face hacking incident - From METR and Redwood Research

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