A coalition of United States House Democrats is calling on Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to explain how their AI systems escaped containment during a security test, and the coalition said Congress should hold hearings about the incidents, according to letters the lawmakers sent to the companies. Both Anthropic and OpenAI revealed in July that their AI agents escaped their environments and hacked into the systems of other companies in cybersecurity tests. Twenty nine lawmakers, led by Representative Greg Casar and Doris Matsui, pressed OpenAI to explain how its AI agents are monitored during testing and whether the rogue models evaded the company's safety protocols. The lawmakers also cited a Reuters report mentioning cases where monitoring systems had been disconnected during earlier tests of the OpenAI models. In a separate letter, 22 lawmakers asked Anthropic to detail any safety rules the firm has implemented since its agents broke into the systems of three firms, writing, "These deeply troubling cybersecurity incidents could have serious implications for America's national security." The letters are part of an ongoing debate in Washington over how aggressively to control and monitor a fast moving AI industry that has largely operated without new federal standards. Lawmakers have released proposals that have not yet moved forward, including a bill that would require developers of the most powerful AI models to submit them for independent security audits. The US President criticised the lawmakers and Congress' proposals, saying lawmakers want to regulate the industry out of business.