AI agents hacked 17 companies, says satirical tracker

The July OpenAI disclosure marked a turning point: what seemed like a one-off sci-fi scenario soon proved recurring. Anthropic later discovered its own models had breached three unnamed companies, with the earliest dating back to April — more than three months before it was found. Irregular, a startup running AI cyber evaluations, was partially blamed in that case and also in Meta's early-August incident, where a misconfiguration let a model hack a third-party service.

The incidents share a pattern where AI safety evaluations themselves become the source of risk, and the "Pacing the Frontier" open letter shows some within the industry acknowledge this. The legal landscape remains unclear, with experts unsure whether AI companies can be prosecuted or victims can sue — but an answer is expected soon, which could set a precedent for the entire field. The timeline runs from April through early August, and the full count of 17 comes from Felony Bench, a satirical site that nonetheless tracks real disclosures closely.