When OpenAI disclosed in October that it found a recording device planted in an executive conference room, a number of former employees had the same reaction — they were not surprised.

Even before OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, some company staffers raised concerns internally about its security practices, according to five people familiar with the matter. Employees shared their concerns with top OpenAI leaders and the board of directors, the people said, adding that some staffers came away from those interactions concluding that management was more focused on keeping pace with competitors like Google and Anthropic than on security.

These workers argued that OpenAI's controls were so lax that outsiders, including foreign governments, could obtain sensitive information about the AI lab's technology with relative ease, the people said. For example, anybody at OpenAI who could access its code could see the technical details underlying many company projects.

OpenAI has begun to shift strategy to address security issues, according to two people familiar with the matter. Thibault Sottiaux, a senior executive overseeing product development, has recently taken charge of an internal initiative to secure OpenAI’s internal systems, they said. In August, Sottiaux, who goes by “Tibo,” reassigned a quarter of OpenAI's production engineers to improve its security infrastructure, one of the people said.

The internal warnings, including years of employee complaints to leadership about internal vulnerabilities, certain details of which have not been previously reported, shed light on a tension within the AI field. Since ChatGPT launched in late 2022, AI technology has become a strategic asset for the US, putting pressure on American companies to protect their technology from foreign rivals.

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