OpenAI manager appears to have hacked Twitter account to promote cryptocurrency scam

OpenAI’s chief technology officer appeared to have hacked into her Twitter account on Thursday night to promote a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme.

Mira Murati, who spent more than five years at OpenAI building advanced AI software, lost control of her Twitter account around 6:03 p.m. Pacific time, according to timestamps on the tweets. Her account began promoting a new cryptocurrency called “$OPENAI” that was supposedly “powered by artificial intelligence-based language models.”

The unauthorized tweets encouraged Murati’s followers to send money to an Ethereum digital wallet address to receive free “airdropped” coins as part of a new initial coin offering. The tweets were then quickly deleted, only to reappear minutes later with slightly altered wording. The tweets were live on Murati’s account for over 45 minutes. Murati’s account has since been updated to its original state and the tweets have been deleted.

The incident highlights the risks of high-profile Twitter accounts being targeted by scammers seeking to use their credibility and broad following to smuggle people’s money under false pretenses.

The apparent hacking of Murati’s account comes just four months after Twitter announced changes two-factor authentication policy that eliminated text messages as an account security option unless users pay for the Twitter Blue premium subscription service. Security experts have warned that the changes could make high-profile accounts more vulnerable to takeovers.

Murati’s Twitter account does show a blue check mark on her profile, indicating that she subscribes to Twitter Blue and would have retained access to SMS two-factor authentication. VentureBeat has reached out to OpenAI for comment and will update this story if and when we hear back.