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New York Times Reports, OpenAI Ignored Employees Who Warned It Wasn't Doing Enough About Security; Democrats Show Signs of Advantage in Early Midterm Voting; Netanyahu Says, Flydubai Suspect Underwent Radical Islamist Indoctrination. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired October 01, 2026 - 08:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[08:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. New reporting from The New York Times. Months before OpenAI's models went rogue, employees and researchers warned the company about safety testing. They tell The Times those warnings were ignored. Employees also said that many day- to-day decisions about security were made by OpenAI's president, Greg Brockman, and that CEO Sam Altman is not closely involved.

With us now with this reporting is Dylan Freedman, A.I. Projects Editor for The New York Times. Dylan, it's great to see you.

So, your reporting found that OpenAI kind of ignored concerns raised by its own employees about security. What was flagged, and how specifically did OpenAI respond?

DYLAN FREEDMAN, A.I. PROJECTS EDITOR, THE NEW YORK TIMES: That's right. Thanks, Tony -- or John, sorry. So, OpenAI found -- OpenAI employees basically had some issues with how models were being tested. They thought that there were not enough safeguards in place for these experiments to run, and they warned OpenAI executives about this. We had two employees that emailed us, and, basically, those warnings were ignored.

So, OpenAI proceeded to do these tests, and it caused all of these incidents like their models sort of going rogue, escaping their guardrails -- and then attacking external companies, like Hugging Face, and even OpenAI's own infrastructure and some government websites.

BERMAN: In your reporting that outside security research were also raising concerns about OpenAI systems, how did the company handle those?

FREEDMAN: Yes. So, there were at least two groups of independent security researchers that sort of reached out to OpenAI with very alarming vulnerabilities they found. You know, they were able to -- one of them was able to access all of OpenAI's source code and even internal Slack messages, and another found a hack that could sort of expose a ChatGPT user's chats. And those researchers were initially sort of disregarded or not taken seriously enough by OpenAI, and they were awarded relatively low security payouts. So, there's these programs called bug bounty programs. Normally, you can get, like, six figures if you disclose a very serious bug. The researchers we talked to only got a few thousand, and in one case, just $500.

BERMAN: How much of this do you think this attitude of non-response, as is suggested by your piece, is OpenAI-specific and how much of it is really industry based?

FREEDMAN: Yes. So, it's definitely a mix of both. People we talked to sort of emphasized that OpenAI probably has this problem the worst. It seems like their executives have a pattern of not taking safety and security seriously. All at the same time, they're unleashing these huge loads of A.I. agents doing potentially dangerous tasks.

But we sort of talked to other people who said a lot of the other A.I. companies, like Anthropic and xAI, they're not necessarily built to be this security hardy either. They're sort of viewed as these startups that now are worth trillions of dollars, and they're not as mature as other software companies like Google or Meta.

BERMAN: So, how much of this has been fixed this week by the president and the A.I. executives signing an order to self-police that will be morally enforceable? Is this something that would have backstopped any of the things that you reported on?

FREEDMAN: Not really. I mean, it's clear that there is a need for regulation. But I think, you know, the way that OpenAI and other A.I. companies are pushing it, they want to do it so that it's in their favor with evaluators who are on their side.

OpenAI has implemented some new security protocols, but there was a disclosure just last week that showed that their model still sort of escaped and got on the internet in an unauthorized way, and their new monitor picked that up, but also found some other incidents that they had missed.

So, it's an ongoing issue. OpenAI actually paused training its latest, most powerful model as a result of this, and as far as I know, that's still paused as of today.

[08:35:07]

BERMAN: Dylan Freedman, it's a great story in the Times. Thanks so much for joining us and sharing your reporting with us. Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Joining me now is House Democratic Whip, Congresswoman Katherine Clark. Thank you so much for being here.

Look, we were just listening to the New York Times report that says OpenAI, one of the companies that has been asking for government regulation and warning of dire consequences without guardrails. The Times says, look, it ignored its own employees' warning of safety concerns before that hack happened. So, how can these companies be trusted to simply police themselves, which is what President Trump has offered as a solution?

REP. KATHERINE CLARK (D-MA): Oh, well, thank you, Sara. That is exactly our point on why we should be here in D.C., where I am today, but there are no Republicans around working on this very issue. And, listen, we want to be the leaders in this technology, but we want it to benefit the American people, and we want to protect jobs and protect our kids and develop a way to harness A.I. for good and protect the American people from harm.

And what we have is a president who is out there berating Americans opposed to data centers in their communities, saying they are backwards and will be poor if they don't get on board, and inviting in not regulation and outside oversight over this powerful technology with all its benefits but its very real threats, and instead bringing in the heads of these companies and saying, okay, guys, you just police yourselves. We're sure that'll work out fine. And meanwhile, the Trump family continues to enrich itself by investing in data centers and A.I.

So, we have a total lack of addressing this very real concern of the American people by the president and the Republican Party.

SIDNER: You've called A.I. a global issue. Is there anything that you think an area, for example, that you think that Democrats and Republicans can work together on for A.I. safety?

CLARK: Of course, there should be. I mean, this is not a Democrat or Republican issue. This is an issue about the future safety of our country, and, yes, this will not be confined to our borders. And, again, we want to be the leaders in this, but there are ways as we are working with experts, and we should be here working on these solutions to answer what the companies say they want, outside regulation, outside audits of what they're doing.

That's not just people that they hire that work within their companies, but let's have people outside evaluating what happened. We have set up agencies for this kind of review in transportation, in financial services, and this is something we need to come together as Americans to address.

And meanwhile, Mike Johnson's response was to send us home early rather than tackling this very key issue that the Americans are worried about. I hear about it everywhere I go in my district and everywhere I go in this country.

SIDNER: I do want to move on to the, the war with Iran. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave his state of the force speech and he leaned into culture wars as part of his vision. Just take a listen to a bit of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We are no longer the woke department or the weak department. Simple translation of that, no fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals, just warriors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: To that end, Secretary Hegseth announced he's now getting rid of a fifth of all generals and admirals. What impact do you think these cuts might have on U.S. military readiness?

CLARKE: I am extremely concerned about where Secretary Hegseth is taking our military, and they're -- as we are at war in Iran, a war that the president and the secretary recklessly put us into without making the case to the American people, without coming to Congress as required.

And Democrats, three times, have put forward war powers resolutions asking them to stop this war, to come and make sense of this for people.

[08:40:00]

And what are we seeing? We are seeing them covering up casualties of our service members. What a disgrace for the secretary of defense to cover up those casualties.

And then we are seeing the impacts of this war on Americans, whether it's at the gas pump or the cost of diesel that is driving our farmers into debt. They are not sure if they are going to be able to afford to plant because of this record high cost of diesel. And all of this is going to come home in continued rising prices of groceries and other goods that American families are already struggling to purchase.

So, to have the secretary try and make this into some, it's their appearance and their testosterone levels that count, it is their military readiness. It's making sure we have enough munitions. It is having a clear mission that is defined and aligns with our national security needs. None of that is being met by this secretary and this president.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you about some numbers that have just come out where Election Day, we know, is just over a month away, but more than 690,000 Americans have already early voted by mail across at least 29 states. It does show that Democrats have a greater share of early votes than two years ago. How do Democrats keep this momentum?

CLARK: You know, we keep talking to the American people and listening to them. And our message is very clear, we see your family, and we're going to fight for you. We're going to fight to lower the cost of housing and groceries and gas. We're going to fight to make sure that when you need healthcare, you can afford it, and you can get it where and when you need it. And then we're going to make sure that we are holding the crooks accountable because corruption that we are seeing in this Republican Party has a real cost for the American taxpayers.

And it's time to put the American people first, put their priorities first, put their voices back in these halls here in the Capitol, and that's exactly the message that we are going to continue to bring every single day. And we have great candidates who are connected to their communities, who understand how hard it is for people to get a foothold, never mind have success in this economy. And the terms I hear are, I'm drowning. I'm barely able to keep my head above water. I can't keep treading water.

This is not how we build security for American families, and that is the message that we are going to keep bringing right through November 3rd. And when we win the majority, that is how we are going to govern, with the American people front and center.

SIDNER: Yes. There's a lot of time between now and then, and we will wait to see what the vote says.

Congresswoman Katherine Clark, thank you so much. I do appreciate you taking the time this morning. John?

BERMAN: All right. The president heads to Texas today. Obviously, Republican Ken Paxton in a very tight Senate race there.

You know, it is notable, Ken Paxton actually said when President Trump held his midterm convention in Dallas that he lost support after that. That said, I'm sure Ken Paxton is eager to have the president campaign for him. He needs all the help he can get.

With us now is CNN Chief Data Analyst Harry Enten.

So, you know, how do you know? How do you know Ken Paxton needs help right now?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA REPORTER: You know what, I would say, but, you know, in this little mini faux battle between Trump and Ken Paxton, the Texans, you know what they say? They both stink. They both stink, and Ken Paxton especially stinks. He's the worst of the worst.

I mean, just look at this. Key GOP Senate nominees net popularity. Look who's at the bottom of this list. It's Ken Paxton. He's at minus 16 points, the worst of the worst. None of these other key Republican Senate nominees are positive, but yet Ken Paxton beats them all in the negative direction, minus 16 points, worse than in Ohio, minus 11, minus eight in Michigan, minus seven in Maine, minus two in Iowa. Ken Paxton is by far the least popular Republican Senate nominee in a key state when you look at all the polling. Texans, simply put, they hate him.

BERMAN: And, Harry, I understand you have a record to report this morning that Ken Paxton has set.

ENTEN: I do have a record. You know, this is one of those ones, congratulations to Ken Paxton. You have done it. You are the least popular Texas GOP Senate nominee this century. You've managed to do it.

And when I was looking at the data, no one else was even in the negative, and you're at minus 16 points at this point.

[08:45:03] This is record-breaking for Texas. Texas is normally a Republican state. Almost always, the Republican Senate nominee is in positive territory. But Ken Paxton just isn't in negative territory, he is deep in negative territory, deep under the Gulf of Mexico, or again, in Trump's language, the Gulf of America.

BERMAN: So, when you said if it's Paxton v. Trump, they're both not doing well right now, talk about the president in Texas.

ENTEN: Yes. Okay. So, you say, you know, okay, Ken Paxton is in the negative. You know, maybe he would want Donald Trump campaigning for him, I mean, maybe to shore up the Republican base. But when it comes to the overall electorate, I mean, just look at this, GOP net approval, GOP president's net approval around this time in a midterm election, look at this. Who's the only negative on the list? It's Donald John Trump at minus 12 points.

That beats the old record, that was Donald John Trump back in 2018 at plus one. It beats that, which George W. Bush, who was at plus three, way lower than George W. Bush, of course, the former governor of Texas, was around this point in the 2002 midterm cycle at around plus 40 points.

The bottom line is this, when you look at the numbers, there is nowhere for Ken Paxton to hide, right? Because if you hug Donald Trump, you say, you know what? I love you, Donald Trump, please come campaign with me, yes, you'd win over some Republicans, but you would push away independents who Donald Trump is deeply underwater with.

And then you go campaign on your own, and it turns out that a guy who was once impeached by the Texas State House, you ain't too popular either. You are, in fact, the least popular GOP Senate nominee in Texas this century, at minus 16 points, the only GOP Senate nominee ever in Texas this century who is actually underwater, and you are deep underwater.

BERMAN: Minus 16 and minus 12.

ENTEN: That is a duo that leads to perhaps the first Democratic senator in Texas since 1988, at least in terms of being elected.

BERMAN: I will say the president has posted some of your segments before. I'm curious to see if he will post this one here.

ENTEN: I'm going to say probably not.

BERMAN: Sara?

SIDNER: Thank you, gentlemen.

Just moments ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed new details about the co-pilot accused of attacking the captain during an attempted hijacking of a Flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv, Netanyahu saying that the suspect underwent radical Islamist indoctrination. We are also learning the captain, after being stabbed, somehow managed to unlock that cockpit door and let in the passengers who stopped the attack heroically. Netanyahu says if that hadn't happened, this could have turned into a 9/11 type of attack.

CNN's Jim Sciutto is with me now. You were able to have a conversation with Netanyahu. What else is he saying about this absolutely terrifying attack that we've been able to see because there was video inside that cockpit from passengers who jumped to help keep this from being a catastrophe?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Listen, in speaking to the prime minister yesterday evening, clearly, he's emphasizing just how close a call this was, right? I mean, without the swift action, including of that plumber, right, who went into that cockpit, subdued the co-pilot who had attacked the pilot, but also leveled the plane out before other pilots were able to get in the cockpit, I mean, just an extremely, extremely close call.

Now, he told me last night that the UAE, of course, that's where this flight originated in Dubai, had invited Israel to join in the investigation. And it's quite clear based on his comments this morning that that investigation is moving forward fairly quickly.

Two new pieces of information, one, the Israeli prime minister says that they now believe the co-pilot went -- underwent some sort of Islamist indoctrination prior. I don't know what that means. Is it online? Was it elsewhere? We'll find out. Two, that as he was going through this, the co-pilot, remember the one who attacked the pilot, said, kill me. kill me. And the prime minister says that that indicated that he was suicidal, and therefore, that adds to the sense that he wanted to take this plane down.

But, again, to be clear, this was a close call. Here's how the prime minister put it to me.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: The co-pilot who was stabbed an Indian pilot showed incredible heroism because bleeding profusely, he somehow managed to unlock the door. The Israeli passenger burst in, saw the attacking co-pilot hover over the instruments. He wasn't sitting in the two -- in one of the two pilot seats, but he was trying to jam the instruments.

The Israeli passenger, Yaniv, took him back, threw him back, took the controls, the stick, and pulled it back. And then another Israeli and I think another air crew member, they got control over the attacker.

And then the reserve pilots who were in the passenger area came in, stabilized the airplane. It was difficult because it was in a nose dive.

[08:50:01]

It was just dropping nose down. And they managed to stabilize the plane. It had a rudder damaged, and the tail was damaged, but they somehow managed to do it.

So, the amazing heroism here of the Indian pilot, the Israeli passenger and his colleagues and those pilots managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster, because that's what it looks like was happening.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: We spoke about other topics as well. I asked him about the Iran war. He recently went to the UAE, the Israeli prime minister, and the topics, among the topics he discussed is Iran. He said they are watching Iran very closely for any additional activity or construction around their nuclear sites.

And I pressed him on Israeli settler violence in the West Bank. He at first said it was a hoax. He minimized the number of those attacks. But when I pressed him on the number, the many hundreds of attacks that have taken place, he did say he condemned that violence. That's, of course, another story we continue to follow very closely. Sara?

SIDNER: Jim Sciutto, great reporting by you, as always. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Ahead this morning, we're getting an inside look at a rural hospital struggling to recruit workers for critical roles.

And a dog helping save its owner's life by flagging down a police officer. How this all went down when we come back.

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[08:55:00]

BERMAN: In Detroit, two families are suing a funeral home over their loved ones -- after their loved one's bodies were apparently mixed up. One family discovered the mix-up when the daughter arrived at the funeral home to do her mother's makeup ahead of the scheduled viewing, only to realize the body was not her mother.

The family later learned their mother had been accidentally cremated, leaving them unable to say their final goodbye. The lawsuit alleges careless and reckless handling of remains.

Florida deputies rushed into a burning apartment after receiving reports of a -- that a disabled resident needed help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a bed-bound patient up here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bed-bound, he can't get out. He's in a bed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The deputies in St. Petersburg were assisting fire crews at the scene, knocking on doors and alerting residents to get out. With no wheelchair on hand, the deputy carried the man to safety.

So, in Kansas, an officer on patrol spotted a dog wandering with a leash attached, but no owner in sight. So, the officer followed the dog to its home nearby and found its owner on the floor of the garage who'd been unable to get up for more than three hours. The officer then got medical help, and the dog's owner is now doing okay. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, John.

All right, The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper returns this Sunday with a month-long embed inside a rural hospital in North Dakota, examining the workforce challenges facing the faculty and the community it serves.

CNN's Ed Lavandera got rare access to see firsthand what it takes to keep the hospital running in a remote community with more than 40 open positions. The hospital struggles to recruit workers willing to relocate to the area, making immigrant workers an increasingly vital part of its workforce.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have had a job opening in the lab since we posted it in late August of 2025. I did a deep dive into how many applications that I've gotten. We received 31 applications directly online from the Philippines. All of them were very well qualified. We had 11 applicants from Nigeria. We had three applicants that were direct from Ghana. We had two very viable candidates. They were both American. We offered job offers to both of them.

They both declined the job offers. Essentially, it was due to the fact that we're very rural.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: CNN's Ed Lavandera joining me now. You had this access. When you walked out of there after this month-long look, what sort of stood out to you? What concerned you the most?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What really was fascinating, you know, during the pandemic, I've spent a lot of time in rural hospitals. I heard over and over again, and really kind of learned about just how desperate of a situation running rural hospitals in small towns all across the country has been. Fast-forward to today where the immigration debate is raging, it is intense, it is highly volatile debate.

And here you have the little town of Hettinger, North Dakota, and the West River Health Services Hospital where myself and our incredible documentary team spent 30 days inside the hospital. They were gracious enough to open their doors to us, and basically let us kind of run free to kind of get a sense of what the challenges are that they face to keep a crucial hospital a lifeline for so many small communities all across that area of southwest North Dakota, and the northern part of South Dakota, and even into Montana as well. So, it was a really eye-opening experience, because here you have this hospital on the frontlines of rural healthcare and the immigration debate. This place sits at this crossroads that's in -- at, at an incredibly intense time and an incredibly precarious time. Because, you know, we heard over and over again in this community during our month there that if this hospital were somehow not be able to function or offer all of the services that they offer, the town itself would die.

[09:00:08]

We heard that over and over from people. And it's just kind of a fascinating look at, you know, all of these different issues that we hear talked about so much kind of playing out in one place.

And, you know, kudos to my colleagues who have spent so much time there. We got to know so many people in this community. They were incredibly gracious with us as they opened their doors and let us kind of document all of this unfolding there. And I hope people will tune in to watch what I think is a really spectacular hour and a very eye- opening hour as well. Sara?

SIDNER: Yes, eye-opening, disturbing. There are so many ways that you can couch this as Americans grapple with this issue of trying to get good healthcare in smaller places with all of the things going on with this administration especially.

Ed Lavandera, thank you so much. You can watch more of Ed's reporting on The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper this Sunday at 8:00 P.M. Eastern and Pacific right here on CNN, and the next day on the CNN app with an All Access subscription.

A new hour of CNN News Central starts right now.