US House Democrats press Anthropic, OpenAI about rogue AI agents

"These deeply troubling cybersecurity incidents could have serious implications for America's national security," the lawmakers wrote in their message to Anthropic.

The letters, released on Monday, are part of a widening debate in Washington over how aggressively to police a fast-moving AI industry that has largely operated without new federal standards. Lawmakers have released a range of proposals that have not yet moved forward, including a bill that would require developers of the most powerful AI models to submit them for independent security audits.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has said very little in public about the Anthropic and OpenAI rogue agents. The president on Friday criticized proposals coming out of Congress to govern AI, saying that lawmakers want to regulate the industry "out of business."

Liberal Senator Bernie Sanders on Monday separately called on Altman, Amodei and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to "pause" developing new models. He referenced a letter signed by more than 1,100 tech company employees urging the U.S. government to support an international effort to develop tools for managing the pace of advanced AI development. Amodei signed that letter, as did staff from Meta Platforms, Anthropic, OpenAI and Alphabet's Google.