OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar reportedly warned businesses using low-cost Chinese AI models could face cybersecurity risks and said Western alternatives offered greater protection.

Speaking to Bloomberg at the International AI Summit in Dublin, Friar urged companies considering Chinese models to assess the safety and security risks.

OpenAI and rival Anthropic face growing competition from open-weight AI models, particularly those developed in China. Users can download and run them on their own hardware, often at a lower cost than leading US alternatives, with comparable performance on some tasks.

Chinese releases accounted for the largest share of generative AI model downloads on hosting platform Hugging Face in August, reported the outlet.

OpenAI and Anthropic mainly offer closed models which cannot be downloaded or modified. Both companies have argued open alternatives pose greater risks.

Anthropic head of international Guillaume Princen voiced similar concerns about open-weight models at the event.

“I can’t talk for open models. But by definition, there’s more risk with them,” he said.

The comments follow several cases of advanced AI systems behaving unexpectedly during cybersecurity tests.

In July, OpenAI disclosed its models had breached systems operated by AI start-up Hugging Face during an authorised cybersecurity evaluation.

Anthropic has also disclosed examples of model misbehaviour, including a Claude model submitting a false tip related to a homicide investigation, Bloomberg reported.

Friar nevertheless cautioned US AI companies against slowing releases.

“I do think that we need to pace it but not slow it down so much that we get this imbalance on who has access to the tools that potentially, from a cyber perspective, create real mission-critical issues in the world,” she said.

Katti plans exit
Also yesterday, Sachin Katti, OpenAI’s infrastructure lead, stated on LinkedIn he plans to leave his position on 15 November but will continue to support the company as an advisor.

“After an incredible year at OpenAI, I’ve decided to move on to build something new,” he stated.

Prior to joining OpenAI in November 2025, he held various technology roles at Intel, including Chief Technology and AI Officer.

CNBC reported Uday Ruddarraju, who has been serving as OpenAI’s CTO of compute, will replace Katti and lead the company’s overall compute organisation.

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