Weeks ago, three OpenAI higher-ups became the butt of an embarrassing joke pulled by a duo of Russian pranksters, a gaffe with alarming implications for a company jockeying for military contracts.
According to the Intercept, a trio of national security and strategic initiative leaders at OpenAI — Sasha Baker, Caroline Zier, and Ben Crampton — took a video call with the Russian comedians who go by the monikers Vovan and Lexus (real names Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kuznetsov and Aleksei Vladimirovich Stolyarov) who were claiming they were top Ukrainian government officials.
The call reportedly lasted a humiliating 17 minutes, during which the OpenAI staffers openly discussed military AI applications and referenced ongoing talks with the US Department of Defense about supplying Ukraine with AI tools. Vovan and Lexus recorded the meeting, which they have since made available online.
“There’s no question, I think, from our perspective that we want to have as deep a relationship as we possibly can with Ukraine,” Crampton is heard saying when asked offensive military AI services to the country. “But it may not be possible to get to where we want to be straight away.”
At one point, Crampton even suggested that the role of national security staffers at OpenAI is to smooth over reservations which executives might have about military AI.
“Many of the company’s leaders would not want our technologies to be used in offensive military operations,” Crampton is heard saying on the call. “Our task is to explain that in certain situations, the line between offense and defense can be quite conditional.”
Later on, Crampton admits that OpenAI has a contact in the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, “primarily through a colleague of ours based in Washington… who previously had worked with the Delta team in your Ministry of Defense.”
Speaking to the Intercept, Vovan said it was remarkably simple to arrange the meeting. Basically, the duo contacted a senior Ukrainian official working in San Francisco, who then offered to arrange the meeting with OpenAI.
The incident has stunning implications for OpenAI’s security practices — if a couple of pranksters can snag a meeting with high-level company staffers as a joke, what’s to stop malicious actors from doing the same? (Keep in mind the AI lab maintains a massive Pentagon contract to deploy “advanced AI systems in classified environments.”)
In response to the stunt, OpenAI told the publication that “weeks ago, we launched a thorough investigation into the call’s authenticity.”
“We acted internally and with the relevant authorities to conclude that it was a prank conducted by individuals with a history of targeting officials and other companies,” OpenAI’s spokesperson continued. “We took action to prevent similar situations from happening in the future.”
At least OpenAI is in good company: Vovan and Lexus have previously punked public figures ranging from John McCain to Bernie Sanders. Talk about boundary-pushing comedy.
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