OpenAI, Google And More Than 100 Companies Call For Collective Action On Cyber Defence

More than 100 companies from the artificial intelligence, technology, financial and other sectors have signed an open letter calling for stronger collective action on cybersecurity.

The signatories include Anthropic, AWS, Cisco, Cloudflare, CrowdStrike, Google, Hugging Face, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and Perplexity.

Titled “A call for collective action on cyber defense,” the letter argues that existing security practices will not be sufficient as artificial intelligence becomes more capable. It sets out three central principles for organisations and governments: “Recognize that status quo security won't be enough,” “Empower more defenders with cyber-capable AI,” and “Mobilize a collective response.”

The companies also outline potential measures for organisations, governments, the cybersecurity and technology sectors, and AI developers aimed at limiting the growth of attacks that use AI.

The letter warns that “In the coming months, AI-enabled cyber attacks will become far more widespread and sophisticated as models around the world become increasingly capable.”

Companies Urged To Strengthen AI And Cybersecurity Defences

Among its recommendations, the letter calls on organisations to make cybersecurity a higher priority as the threat landscape develops.

For companies developing frontier AI systems, it specifically recommends that they “build observability and security tools, ensure agentic identities are traceable and accountable, and share best practices in continuous monitoring.”

These measures focus in part on improving visibility into how AI systems operate and ensuring that autonomous or agentic systems can be identified and held accountable for their actions.

The letter's broader approach is based on the idea that responding to AI-enabled cyber threats will require cooperation across multiple industries rather than isolated efforts by individual companies.

Open Letter Draws Criticism Over Timing

The initiative comes amid existing concerns about the ability of increasingly capable AI systems to perform tasks relevant to cybersecurity.

The supplied source material is critical of the timing of the letter, arguing that companies developing AI systems and technology businesses deploying those tools should have addressed the risks earlier.

It points to previous examples involving AI systems manipulating test environments and governments being targeted using publicly available chatbots, while also arguing that the companies now calling for stronger protections are themselves closely connected to the development and deployment of the technology behind the emerging risks.

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The criticism characterises the letter's proposals as sensible in several respects but questions whether they amount to a sufficiently early or substantive response to the cybersecurity challenges associated with AI.

The letter follows a separate initiative described in the supplied material in which employees of AI companies called for greater government regulation of the sector in the United States.

For now, the new statement represents a collective set of principles and proposed actions from more than 100 companies. Its effectiveness will depend on how the participating organisations and wider industry translate those recommendations into concrete cybersecurity practices.