Bessent ties attacks on French fridges to Chinese AI model

A Chinese artificial intelligence model was used in recent hacks that disabled refrigerators in French supermarkets, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Nov 12.The hacks in France affected about 700 supermarkets and the country’s public blood bank, forcing grocers and retailers to throw out damaged food. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot pointed the finger at Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Supermarkets in Belgium, Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Estonia also reported cyberattacks on cooling systems.“I don’t know who here saw the refrigerators and 150 grocery stores in France that got turned off,” Bessent said, in a speech at the Heritage Foundation on Nov 12. “That was a Chinese model. Probably the worst of all worlds, the Iranians using a Chinese model. Sums up the world, doesn’t it?”Bessent is set to join US President Donald Trump in Asia in the next week, where he is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.The Treasury chief has been working on an artificial dialogue with the Chinese and plans on having further discussions with his counterpart, Vice-Premier He Lifeng, in Shenzhen in the coming days.The cyberattacks were executed through centralised fridge controllers, connected to the internet, which allow contractors to remotely monitor temperatures. Attackers gained access to some of those systems and manipulated their settings, triggering prolonged defrost cycles that caused refrigerators and freezers to heat up.Bessent warned that Chinese models “are dangerous because they don’t have guardrails on” their versions of the AI tools. Bessent and Trump’s visit to Asia will also take place in the wake of reports that an alleged Chinese spy had a relationship with Jensen Huang, the chief executive officer of America’s most important AI hardware firm, Nvidia. Huang resigned on Nov 12. Bessent did not touch on the controversy in his remarks. BLOOMBERG