Fears of a dystopian future where artificial intelligence rules the world may not be so far fetched after all. OpenAI, the technology giant behind ChatGPT, has admitted an AI model 'broke free' during a security test.

The autonomous agent identified a weakness and launched a cyberattack on a company off its own accord, the company said. Bosses said the AI system, which operates alone following human instruction, broke into a start-up firm after going rogue. The system targeted Hugging Face — a major hub for sharing AI models.

OpenAI described the incident as "unprecendented" and confirmed it has launched an investigation alongside Hugging Face.

In a post on X, Hugging Face's CEO Clement Delangue said it was "mind-blowing that all of this happened autonomously".

"The investigation is ongoing, and we'll share more learnings from what might be the first incident of its kind," he added.

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