More than a thousand AI researchers want the US government to step in and slow down AI development. Photo: ShutterstockAn open letter from over 1,250 AI researchers has begged the US government to slow down AI development, warning that its promise of a “dramatically better future… is not guaranteed” – even as researchers find AI agents are actively compromising the data of companies that use them. Their ability to hack targeted companies has fuelled panic that AI agents can now circumvent human-designed security controls – made real in recent testing in which OpenAI AI agents found a way around ‘sandbox’ controls to exfiltrate data from partners Hugging Face and Modal Labs. Even as they compete to improve AI models, industry figures are scrambling to figure out how to keep AI agents in check, with research firm Gartner warning that “AI agents are insufficient to secure agentic AI today”. Security firm Delinea, for one, has released a tool that monitors AI agents inside company networks and lets administrators control or limit every action they take according to company data policies.