OpenAI CEO Altman Says Patching Bugs No Longer Enough to Counter AI-Driven Cyber Threats

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said at Stanford Graduate School of Business on October 24, 2026 that the cybersecurity crisis driven by AI is worse than many realize and that simply patching vulnerabilities is no longer a viable defense strategy.

Speaking to graduate students, Altman said the problem has not been taken seriously enough by organizational leaders, countries, or individuals. He cited Anthropic's Claude Mythos model, which the company warned was too powerful to release publicly, as an example of risks that many failed to grasp.

Altman said most organizations that responded only fixed bugs already discovered by AI models, without accounting for future exploits. He called for shifting the defense model toward using the same AI technology to build a new kind of protective shield.