I think that they are trying to scare regulators into banning truly open LLMs as too dangerous and instead trusting "responsible" people like Altman to keep things safe.

Your speculation is arguably fact. I argue it’s fact.

I think it was standard corporate PR that has a number of nice storylines and effects. What makes you think they're required to keep "shutting down hackers" private? I feel like I've seen that story 1000 times.