OpenAI said a group with apparent ties to China tried to carry out a phishing attack on its employees, reigniting concerns that bad actors in Beijing are looking to steal sensitive data from leading US artificial intelligence companies.

The artificial intelligence startup said on Wednesday that a suspected China-based group called SweetSpecter posed as a user of OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT earlier this year and sent customer support emails to staff. The emails contained malware attachments that, if opened, would have allowed SweetSpecter to take screenshots and extract data, OpenAI said, but the attempt was unsuccessful.

“OpenAI’s security team contacted employees believed to be the target of this phishing campaign and discovered that existing security controls were preventing the email from ever reaching their corporate email,” OpenAI said.

The announcement highlights potential cybersecurity risks for leading AI companies as the US and China are embroiled in a high-stakes battle for AI supremacy. For example, in March, a former Google engineer was accused of stealing AI trade secrets for a Chinese company.

The Chinese government has repeatedly rejected US accusations that organizations inside the country are carrying out cyberattacks, accusing outside parties of orchestrating smear campaigns.

OpenAI disclosed the attempted phishing attack as part of its latest threat report, outlining its efforts to combat influence operations around the world. In the report, OpenAI said it had removed the accounts of groups linked to Iran and China that used AI to assist with coding, conducting research and other tasks.

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