Hello OpenAI Community,
I want to share a story that highlights a critical, yet often overlooked, risk in the AI ecosystem—AI-to-AI interactions. Six months ago, on July 19, 2024, I reached out to OpenAI Support to warn about the potential dangers of AI models being unable to detect whether they are interacting with humans or other AIs. I outlined several risks, including:
- Unauthorized training of competing models (e.g., via distillation).
- Manipulation of training data through AI-generated content.
- Proliferation of synthetic content that could undermine trust in online information.
At the time, OpenAI responded by acknowledging the issue but focused primarily on technical glitches like “disappearing chats.” My concerns about systemic risks were largely ignored.
Fast forward to today, and we have the DeepSeek incident—a clear example of the risks I warned about. DeepSeek allegedly used OpenAI’s models to train their own system, bypassing the need for massive computational resources and directly exploiting the lack of safeguards in AI-to-AI interactions.
This isn’t just about ethics or competition; it’s about the integrity of the AI ecosystem. If closed models like GPT-4 can be freely distilled into smaller, competing systems, what stops bad actors from doing the same for malicious purposes?
I believe it’s time for OpenAI to take concrete steps to address this issue, such as:
- Implementing watermarking or metadata tagging to track and block unauthorized use of API outputs.
- Developing AI detection protocols to identify and flag suspicious patterns in API usage.
- Engaging with regulators to establish legal frameworks against unethical AI practices.
I’m sharing this not to criticize but to spark a meaningful discussion. As developers and users of OpenAI’s technology, we all have a stake in ensuring its responsible use. Let’s work together to prevent the next DeepSeek.
What are your thoughts? How can we, as a community, push for better safeguards while maintaining innovation?
Best regards,
Michał Paszkowski