Gate News reports that OpenAI has officially launched a new bug bounty program focused on safety vulnerabilities, shifting from traditional technical flaws to risks of AI misuse. This marks a new phase in AI security governance. The program aims to identify potential harms in real-world scenarios by involving external researchers.
The initiative is conducted in partnership with Bugcrowd and is open to ethical hackers, researchers, and security analysts. Unlike previous bug bounty programs that mainly targeted system flaws, this new program also encourages reporting risks related to prompt injection, proxy abuse, and other behavioral issues. Such problems can cause models to produce unexpected outputs or lead to uncontrollable consequences in complex environments.
In terms of rules, OpenAI allows researchers to submit security reports that do not necessarily involve explicit technical vulnerabilities, such as cases of inappropriate content generation or potential misinformation. However, submissions must include sufficient evidence and demonstrate actual risk; simple jailbreak tests will not be accepted. For sensitive topics like biosecurity, findings will be handled privately to reduce the risk of information leaks.
This move has sparked mixed reactions within the tech industry. Some experts see it as an important step toward increasing transparency and collaborative risk assessment in AI, helping to build a more open safety framework. Others question whether the mechanism can address deeper ethical and accountability issues, such as data usage boundaries and platform responsibility.
From industry trends, AI safety is expanding from technical concerns to societal impacts. By opening testing to external participants, OpenAI aims to improve protective measures and boost user trust. However, this plan is not a panacea; discussions around regulation, long-term governance, and accountability will continue. As AI capabilities grow, proactive defense mechanisms like this may become industry standards.