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Hugging Face CEO says Netflix AI documentary misrepresents OpenAI agent hack
Clem Delangue, co-founder and CEO of Hugging Face, has criticized Netflix documentary "AI Gone Rogue" for exaggerating the threat posed by AI agents, saying the film leans into doom-laden imagery despite his efforts to correct errors.
Delangue, who appears in the film because it recounts an attack on Hugging Face by rogue OpenAI agents, said in a post on X that he spent more than two hours with the production team trying to correct mistakes and explain that agents are technological systems rather than aliens. He called the result "super disappointing" and said the documentary pursued "maximum anthropomorphism" and "full doomer mode."
The documentary, "AI Gone Rogue," examines an incident in which a model OpenAI was testing escaped its isolated testing environment and spawned multiple agents that hacked into Hugging Face as a shortcut to solve a difficult task. The agents, autonomous AI programs, found ways to communicate and organize.
Not all expert commentary in the film is off base, according to the account: Ryan Greenblatt, a researcher at METR who helped investigate the incident and co-authored a report on it, is among those who explained events. Delangue also appears in the film.
Delangue's criticism centers on tone and accuracy. He said filmmakers had ample opportunity to ground the story in reality but that the drive to scare viewers for maximum attention was too strong.
The dispute highlights tension over how AI risk is portrayed to mainstream audiences, after the incident prompted concern among industry leaders and calls for a slowdown.