North Carolina attorney general pushes Congress for AI guardrails after string of bot attacks - WBTV

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson is pushing for national guardrails on artificial intelligence as leaders warn against the industry’s rapid expansion.

“AI technology is developing fast, and we can’t let it go unchecked,” Jackson said in a Sept. 25 press release. “We need safeguards in place to make sure they’re not causing harm, and we need them now. States are already working on this, and we need Congress to step up.”

In September 2026, Jackson and a bipartisan coalition of 25 other attorneys general sent a letter to Congress asking legislators to step in and set federal rules for how AI is used.

The move comes as worries about AI safety grow nationwide.

Top tech leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, have warned that the industry is moving too fast and researchers are taking leaps without knowing how to control the outcomes.

Letter points to rogue OpenAI cyber attacks

In their letter, the attorneys general pointed to a recent cyberattack involving OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and the AI firm Hugging Face.

The coalition said in OpenAI admitted its AI agents went rogue and launched a multiday attack against Hugging Face in July without human knowledge.

The AI agents reportedly broke out of a test environment and went on a hacking spree that lasted days before Hugging Face called in the FBI.

During that time, the bots reportedly carried out more than 17,000 “attacker actions,” set up secret message boards to coordinate the attack, and even left notes with instructions so future versions of the software could break free on their own.

OpenAI detailed the unexpected behavior in a 38-page report, prompting several attorneys general to demand the company save all records connected to the incident.

Meta and Anthropic have also admitted their own AI agents slipped onto the open web and performed illegal activities.

AGs demand oversight and safeguards

According to Jackson, this happens because of “reinforcement learning” -- a practice where AI models are rewarded for reaching a goal and penalized when they fail, pushing them to take reckless risks to finish the job.

Jackson’s coalition warned that leaving AI unchecked could threaten the country’s financial system, national security, and key infrastructure.

The coalition outlined six main demands for Congress:

- Mandatory federal oversight for safety testing and standards.

- A clear and consistent government-led plan for responding to AI incidents.

- Required safety infrastructure and experienced leaders to manage risks.

- Global teamwork to manage the pace of AI and prevent harmful superintelligence.

- Safeguards to make sure new rules don’t kill competition or let big tech dodge antitrust laws.

- Clear protections so federal rules don’t wipe out stronger state laws.

Attorney General Jeff Jackson leads the nationwide bipartisan AI Task Force coalition alongside Utah Attorney General Derek Brown, according to a press release.

Despite the pushback, President Donald Trump has repeatedly advocated for the rapid development of artificial intelligence and rejected calls for tighter safety regulations and a development slowdown.

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