OpenAI knew that their models had on multiple occasions created message boards and bypassed what they wrongly call a “sandbox”. Despite that, they did not take any proper steps to prevent such in the future, which is how the Medicare hack happened.

So yes, they knew, without a doubt, that this could happen again.

What OpenAI does is like the Ford Pinto (partly because their recent models are inherently faulty [0], not just their use of them) and the responsibility is solely with them.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49739490