I don’t think their test system was directly connected to the Internet. OpenAI’s post said this:
With this access, our models performed a series of privilege escalation and lateral movement actions in our research testing environment until the models reached a node with Internet access.
The way I read it, the AI agent (using multiple models) escaped the sandbox, traversed the LAN in their R&D environment, gained access to the gateway and from there, the Internet. That’s not as simple as just escaping a container, VM or firewall on the host machine and bingo, you have Internet. I’m mildly impressed by that.
The concerning aspect of all this is that this is a perfect example of misalignment, which has been warned about. In order to reach its goals, instead of pursing it legitimately, the AI agent sought a shortcut and attacked Huggingface.
100%. I buy physical copies of the books I want to read, because odds are I’ll probably keep them and read them again in future. The ebooks I have are files I have been able to download and store on my system (and backed up), so they can’t be edited or deleted.
I will always prefer a physical release for a film or TV show over digital-only. Not only do I not have to pay a subscription (and then worry that it’s going to get edited or removed), but I get sound+video quality that exceeds what’s possible on streaming at present. Plus there’s just something nice about having your favourite movies and shows sitting on your shelf to remind you that it’s there and something you enjoy, rather than a purely digital library that isn’t as tangible or immediately visible.
It’s deeply frustrating, too, when there are shows that you just can’t buy at all. A few times in the past two years there’s been a show on one of our free-to-air TV networks and their online streaming video service that I’ve enjoyed, but they’re only there for a limited time and then gone. Can you buy them on disc or even digital only? No. They are almost as empheral as TV from the 1960s when shows were made to be shown once, maybe repeated a few times before rights expired, then gone (sometimes forever, if you didn’t have space in your archives).