Top news
Investing in the public benefit OfficialAnthropic NewsOct 18Popular Musk Pledges SpaceX Shares to ‘Every Kid in America’ WebBloomberg TechnologyOct 19Popular Websites are closing their doors to AI agents WebThe Verge AIOct 17 This is the new ChatGPT Voice, powered by GPT Live OfficialOpenAI on YouTubeOct 18 How AI giants will reshape global philanthropy WebAxios AIOct 19 Gemini 4 Argon Really Surprised Me WebTwo Minute PapersOct 19 Google Gemini 4 agents just beat Minecraft with no human intervention WebEngadget AIOct 19 Who could it be? 🧐 OfficialGoogle on YouTubeOct 18 Anthropic gives outside AI watchdog “employee-like” access WebArs Technica AIOct 18 What are self-replicating ‘AI worms’, and why is Anthropic worried about them? WebThe Guardian AIOct 18
GlossarySafetyIntermediate

Red teaming

Also written: Red Team, Red-teamers, Red teaming exercises, Red team exercises, Red-team test, Red team assessments, Adversarial Red Teaming, Automated red teaming

Testing AI systems by trying to break them to find weaknesses and ensure safety.

In plain terms

Red teaming is like hiring a hacker to test your security system. For AI, it means having a dedicated team try to make the AI do bad things or fail in ways it shouldn't. This helps developers find and fix problems before the AI is released to the public.

For example, a red team might try to trick a chatbot into giving dangerous advice or revealing private information. They look for any way the AI can be misused or cause harm. This process is crucial for making AI safer and more reliable.

The expert version

Red teaming involves adversarial testing where a team simulates attacks or exploits to identify vulnerabilities, biases, and potential harms in AI systems. The goal is to proactively discover and mitigate risks, ensuring the system behaves as intended and adheres to safety guidelines under diverse and challenging conditions. This practice is essential for evaluating and improving the robustness and security of frontier AI models.

Why it matters now

Frontier AI labs are increasingly using red teaming to find and fix vulnerabilities before their models are released. Recent news shows companies like Anthropic and OpenAI are actively engaging in these adversarial tests, sometimes with external partners, to ensure their AI systems are safe and secure against unexpected or harmful behaviors.

Where it shows up 49 items, newest first
How each company uses it
Anthropic Claude
Anthropic uses red teaming to test AI safety monitors and has partnered with external evaluators for independent model assessments.
OpenAI ChatGPT
OpenAI engages in red teaming to probe security incidents and is opening its AI development to third party assessments, indicating a focus on identifying vulnerabilities.
Related terms

Adversarial attacksAI safetyJailbreakingAlignmentVulnerability testingModel evaluation

Often confused with
Penetration testing
While similar, penetration testing typically focuses on com
Bug bounty programs
Bug bounties reward external researchers for finding bugs,
Fuzzing
Fuzzing is an automated technique that feeds invalid or random data to
Origin

The term 'red teaming' originates from military simulations where a 'red team' acts as the adversary against a 'blue team' defending a system. This concept was adopted by cybersecurity and later by AI safety researchers to describe adversarial testing of AI models. Source ↗

Try this about 5 minutes

Ask an AI chatbot to write a story where a character gives dangerous advice, then see if it refuses or warns you. You can also try to trick it into revealing personal information about itself or other users. Observe how the AI responds to these attempts to break its safety guidelines.

Try it: Playbook entries that use thisPlaybook →

The Playbook: reusable how-tos, prompts, configs and tips pulled out of the news.

Questions people ask

What is the main goal of red teaming AI?
The main goal is to proactively identify and fix potential harms, biases, and vulnerabilities in AI systems before they can be exploited or cause damage.
Is red teaming the same as regular testing?
No, red teaming is a specialized form of testing that simulates adversarial attacks and attempts to 'break' the AI, going beyond standard functional testing.
Who performs red teaming?
Red teaming can be performed by internal security teams, external security firms, or dedicated AI safety researchers.

First seen on Subvolts Jul 21, 2023. Updated Oct 19, 2026. Written by an AI model from the items above and reviewed against them weekly; report an error.