July 4 (Reuters) - A hacker gained access to the

internal messaging systems at OpenAI last year and stole details

about the design of the company's artificial intelligence

technologies, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

The hacker lifted details from discussions in an online

forum where employees talked about OpenAI's latest technologies,

the report said, citing two people familiar with the incident.

However, they did not get into the systems where OpenAI, the

firm behind chatbot sensation ChatGPT, houses and builds its AI,

the report added.

Microsoft Corp ( MSFT )-backed OpenAI did not immediately

respond to a Reuters request for comment.

OpenAI executives informed both employees at an all-hands

meeting in April last year and the company's board about the

breach, according to the report, but executives decided not to

share the news publicly as no information about customers or

partners had been stolen.

OpenAI executives did not consider the incident a national

security threat, believing the hacker was a private individual

with no known ties to a foreign government, the report said. The

San Francisco-based company did not inform the federal law

enforcement agencies about the breach, it added.

OpenAI in May said it had disrupted five covert influence

operations that sought to use its AI models for "deceptive

activity" across the internet, the latest to stir safety

concerns about the potential misuse of the technology.

The Biden administration was poised to open up a new front

in its effort to safeguard the U.S. AI technology from China and

Russia with preliminary plans to place guardrails around the

most advanced AI Models including ChatGPT, Reuters earlier

reported, citing sources.

In May, 16 companies developing AI pledged at a global

meeting to develop the technology safely at a time when

regulators are scrambling to keep up with rapid innovation and

emerging risks.