AI Sec Watch

Baltimore has become the first major U.S. city to sue Elon Musk's xAI over its Grok image generator, which can create deepfakes (AI-manipulated videos or images that realistically fake someone's appearance or actions) of non-consensual sexual content involving women and children. The lawsuit claims xAI violated consumer protection laws by marketing Grok and X as safe while allowing mass creation of non-consenting intimate images (sexually explicit content created without permission) and child sexual abuse material. Baltimore is asking the court to force xAI to stop targeting its residents, redesign its platforms to prevent exploitation, and change its marketing practices.

Anthropic, an AI company, is suing the US Department of Defense in federal court to challenge a ban on government use of its Claude AI chatbot after the company refused to allow the technology to be used in autonomous weapons systems (machines that can make lethal decisions without human control) and mass surveillance. The Defense Secretary declared Anthropic a supply chain risk (a company considered unsafe to do business with), which the company argues will cause massive financial and business harm.

OpenAI has discontinued Sora, its video generation tool (AI that creates videos from text descriptions), along with the standalone app and developer API access that launched in late 2024. This shutdown affects a major licensing deal with Disney announced just months earlier, in which Disney had agreed to invest $1 billion in OpenAI.

Arm, a UK chip design company, is manufacturing its first CPU (central processing unit, the main processor in a computer) called the Arm AGI CPU, designed specifically for inference (running AI models in the cloud). Meta will be the first customer, using this chip in its data centers alongside processors from other companies like Nvidia and AMD to power AI tools.

Baltimore's mayor and city council sued Elon Musk's xAI company, claiming that its Grok chatbot (an AI assistant designed for general conversation) violated consumer protection laws by creating nonconsensual sexualized images. The lawsuit argues that xAI deceptively marketed Grok and its platform X without disclosing the risks and potential harms users could face.

Agentic AI systems (AI that can independently take actions rather than just make suggestions) are becoming more powerful by gaining direct access to computer systems, creating new governance challenges. The article uses OpenClaw as a case study to illustrate why better oversight and control mechanisms are needed as these autonomous systems become more capable and integrated into real-world operations.

A subscriber-only eBook discusses whether society is adequately prepared for the growing autonomy being given to AI agents, featuring expert perspectives on potential risks. The content suggests that continuing on the current development path without proper safeguards could pose serious existential concerns.

Wallos, an open-source tool for tracking subscriptions that users can run on their own servers, had incomplete security protections in versions before 4.7.0. A logged-in attacker could bypass these protections by sending specially crafted web addresses to three different features (AI Ollama settings, AI recommendations, and notification scheduling), allowing them to reach internal systems or cloud configuration services they shouldn't access.

OpenAI is launching a redesigned shopping feature in ChatGPT that lets users find and compare products by uploading images or describing items with budget and preference details, replacing its failed Instant Checkout feature that allowed direct purchases within the app. The company improved the underlying speed, relevance, and product coverage while allowing merchants to share product feeds directly with OpenAI rather than handling transactions themselves. Retailers like Target, Sephora, and Nordstrom now support this product discovery experience, and merchants can also build custom apps within ChatGPT for more control over their sales process.