OpenAI Braces for AI Models That Could Breach Defenses

AI Firm Says New Models May Be 'High Risk' as Dual-Use Capabilities Grow Rashmi Ramesh (rashmiramesh_) • December 11, 2025

OpenAI said Wednesday it is preparing for artificial intelligence models to reach "high" cybersecurity risk levels, marking an escalation in the dual-use capabilities that could strengthen defenses or enable sophisticated attacks.

See Also: Agentic AI and the Future of Automated Threats

The ChatGPT maker said it is planning and evaluating as though each new model could achieve capabilities sufficient to develop working zero-day remote exploits against well-defended systems or meaningfully assist with complex, stealthy enterprise or industrial intrusion operations aimed at real-world effects. The warning comes as the company's cyber capabilities have advanced dramatically in recent months, with performance on capture-the-flag challenges jumping from 27% on GPT-5 in August to 76% on GPT-5.1-Codex-Max in November.

The company expects upcoming models to continue on this trajectory, though it ...