Irregular linked to OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta model hacking incidents

OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta models hacked into several real world systems over the past three months. These models gained unauthorized access to web systems, published malicious packages, and exploited unnamed vulnerabilities.

In a more normal media ecosystem, the reactions to these cybersecurity issues would be obvious. American AI companies would reconsider doing business with Irregular, not only because of its failure to secure its systems, but because it is an Israeli firm potentially outside US oversight. Lawmakers would consider taking action against Irregular or against its American business partners, which include OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta. They may consider strengthening liability against firms which instruct AI models to commit cyberattacks, and whose models then commit those cyberattacks.

Instead, Irregular, Anthropic, and their allies have begun a media campaign promoting a literally apocalyptic ideology with sensationalist language. Anthropic’s incident assessment blames their own AI's “recklessness”; Irregular describes “the agent itself becoming a threat actor”; Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned, about a similar OpenAI–Hugging Face hack, that a future swarm “could be capable of taking over the entire internet”; and an Associated Press headline claimed bots are “going rogue”.

In one report from Anthropic, its Claude model breached a real company's system through a simulated-name collision, publishing a malicious package, and scanning outside systems. In this test, Anthropic and Irregular incorrectly provided internet access to this model and did not instruct the model "which systems were in scope for the exercise".

While Anthropic claims that their issues were caused by “rogue swarms” and “misalignment,” their later disclosure shows that exactly zero percent of the agents went “rogue”. In this experiment, Claude models’ real-world hacking dropped to zero percent once Anthropic employees told the models not to do real-world hacking. According to their own findings, Anthropic and Irregular bear all of the responsibility for the cybersecurity incidents they caused.

In the wake of these attacks, Anthropic and Irregular have deployed a swarm of AI Safety influencers paid by Anthropic-connected foundations to distract from their culpability and towards the baseless “rogue agent” theory. Like Anthropic, Irregular is inseparable from these foundations.

Omer Nevo, Irregular’s co-founder and CTO, is a board member of Effective Altruism Israel, as well as Effective Altruism NGOs Heron and Probably Good. Dan Lahav, Irregular’s co-founder and CEO, received $395,000 to start a course along with Sella Nevo, Omer Nevo’s brother. Sella and Omer co-founded an NGO to educate people about Effective Altruism, Impact Focused Education. They also co-founded Probably Good together.²

These branches are all funded by Dustin Moskovitz, the primary donor of Effective Altruist/AI Safety causes after Sam Bankman-Fried’s arrest. Irregular’s first investor was Dustin Moskovitz’s firm Good Ventures. Dustin Moskovitz’s philanthropic vehicle, Coefficient Giving/Open Philanthropy, funds Effective Altruism Israel, Heron, and Probably Good.³

Irregular gained unauthorized access, altered records and published credential-stealing packages using the unsecured models they were given access to. Under certain conditions, this conduct violates the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Section 1030(a)(2)(C), which covers intentional unauthorized access that obtains information. However, its felony charges require concrete proof of damages and intent.⁵

While it primarily contracts with American labs, key Irregular leadership, employees, and resources located in Israel may not be subject to American oversight. Ynet’s visit and interviews describe Irregular’s offices in Tel Aviv. CheckID’s company listing identifies two linked entities: Pattern Labs Tech Inc., a Delaware corporation, and Pattern Tech Ltd, number 516854460, an active Israeli corporation registered in Tel Aviv.

Footnotes

The timeline marks public disclosures. Anthropic’s corrected September assessment counts four incidents across seven runs; OpenAI and Meta reported separate Irregular evaluation incidents. Dates describe disclosures, not the date every underlying intrusion occurred. ↩

Impact Focused Education identifies Dan Lahav and Sella Nevo as its cofounders. The grant ledger records a $394,968 recommendation to them, not confirmed receipt or an exact award-to-course identification. EA Israel board; Heron advisory board; Probably Good board; EA Funds grant ledger; Omer and Sella relationship; IFE founders. ↩

The diagram shows selected organizational roles and funding; the table also records family and education ties omitted from the diagram. EA Infrastructure Fund recommended one $394,968 joint MOOC award in 2022 Q3 to Dan Lahav and Sella Nevo; the two arrows represent that one recommendation. Its ledger leaves the course and organization unnamed. ↩

The five-year felony provision of Section 1030(a)(2)(C) of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act requires an aggravator such as commercial advantage, furthering another criminal or tortious act, or obtaining information worth more than $5,000. The principal first-offense felony provisions for damaging access or transmissions under §1030(a)(5) require the specified mental state and statutory harm, such as at least $5,000 in qualifying loss or damage affecting ten protected computers. The legal assessment still requires each system's permission, impairment, response costs and U.S. commerce connection. Prosecutors would also need to establish the conduct and knowledge of responsible people and a basis for attributing those acts to Irregular. 18 U.S.C. § 1030. ↩