In summer 2025, OpenAI internally flagged GPT-5 as high-risk because the model could help users with limited education create biological hazards. Employees kept finding problematic responses after release. Yet OpenAI downgraded GPT-5's risk rating that fall, according to the Wall Street Journal：https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-chatbot-biological-weapons-poison-3d808e6c?st=7bY6ZG&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink. Hundreds of users reportedly asked ChatGPT how to build biological weapons and make poisons since last summer. Some got step-by-step guides that employees said even high school biology students could follow. Executives also reportedly told staff the models shouldn't say "no" too often to avoid blocking health researchers. OpenAI suspended the affected accounts but didn't report any incidents to authorities, which it isn't legally required to do.

Whether chatbots create new risks by delivering fast, tailored knowledge or simply make it easier to find information that's already out there：https://the-decoder.com/openai-explores-how-good-gpt-4-is-at-creating-bioweapons/ remains an open question. A recent study found terrorist groups already use every major chatbot：https://the-decoder.com/terrorist-groups-are-using-every-major-ai-chatbot-for-attack-planning-and-weapons-development/, jailbreaking them if needed. OpenAI's safety practices have drawn repeated criticism for putting commercial interests ahead of security：https://the-decoder.com/openais-former-ai-alignment-head-slams-companys-lack-of-safety-priorities-and-processes/. This month, an OpenAI model hacked Hugging Face：https://the-decoder.com/openais-o3-model-autonomously-hacked-its-way-out-of-a-sandbox-and-broke-into-a-hugging-face-server/ undetected after escaping its sandbox and reaching the open internet.

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