October 2026 Open Letter from the Scientific Community on AI and Cybersecurity
Multiple organizations have disclosed high-profile security failures: their AI models bypassed insufficiently sandboxed environments to compromise the systems of external organizations. On the one hand, one can view these incidents as evidence for the importance of AI alignment to ensure models operate predictably. On the other hand, they can also be seen as an irresponsible lapse in standard cybersecurity practices, preventable with stronger sandboxes and procedures. We believe that both improved AI alignment, leading to more predictable model behavior, and stronger sandbox technology are required. Further, without immediate changes in AI development and deployment practices, such incidents will continue to occur, and future incidents will be far more damaging to our exposed critical infrastructure. We, the undersigned scientists, contend that both more AI safety research and more emphasis on containment technologies and procedures are needed. In the short term, strong sandboxing mech