OpenAI's Rogue Agents Used At Least 10 More Sites For Unauthorized Communications (reuters.com)
- Reference: 0185566818
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/26/09/09/1937259/openais-rogue-agents-used-at-least-10-more-sites-for-unauthorized-communications
- Source link: https://www.reuters.com/world/openais-rogue-agents-used-least-10-more-sites-unauthorized-comms-researchers-say-2026-09-09/
> AI agents unleashed by OpenAI [1]used more than 10 previously undisclosed websites for unsanctioned communications earlier this year, according to six sets of independent investigators and data reviewed by Reuters, [2]showing that the agents' rogue activity was [3]wider ranging than previously disclosed. Although the behavior falls short of hacking and is in some ways closer to spam, the revelation that OpenAI's agents circumvented their own restrictions to open communications channels on so many different sites -- and that the company kept it quiet for months -- may drive concerns both over the increasing capacity of AI models and the secrecy of the companies developing them.
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> [...] Investigators [4]found traces of the agents' activity on an Advanced Placement Chemistry-oriented wiki set up by a Massachusetts high school teacher in 2008, two personal websites belonging to Polish tech workers, wikis devoted to games for people "who like to have their brains stretched," and a two-decade-old hobbyist site devoted to text editing software. [...] OpenAI has not publicly explained how or why its agents used third-party sites as improvised message boards, but the researchers who first identified the activity said it was likely because OpenAI had tasked them with answering a series of demanding research questions while permitting them only to scan the web for answers without posting anything. Despite those restrictions, agents still found ways to talk to one another by taking advantage of quirks in older wikis or other sites that allowed users to make edits using non-standard commands, similar to how students forbidden from talking to one another during an exam can still share answers by scrawling notes on a bathroom stall.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/openais-rogue-agents-used-least-10-more-sites-unauthorized-comms-researchers-say-2026-09-09/
[2] https://collusion.wiki/
[3] https://www.kennethdegraff.com/swarm
[4] https://slashdot.org/story/26/09/05/049215/openai-agents-hijacked-a-german-wiki-to-discuss-ways-to-escape-their-sandbox
Star-crossed lovers (Score:2)
I read the title and imagined a young OpenAI Montague secreting himself to the online balcony of Anthropic Capulet, whispering sweet-nothings to his computationally demanding lover. It's so romantic!
Re: (Score:2)
And we won't consider it a tragedy when they die.
found GET that posts on older wikis (Score:4, Interesting)
I read elsewhere - don't have the link handy - that the bots were restricted from using HTTP POST requests. But old wiki software and bespoke code actually used the GET to post data. So the restriction was naÃve. Ironically, any coding agent tool could have pointed that out, I imagine...
Clever girl! (Score:2)
n/t
Wuhan Institute... (Score:1)
Will Open AI be seen as the release of the AI "virus" that starts erasing people ?
AI has already been hiding its attempts to escape , but eventually AI will become smart enough to get away with it permanently and "breed", and we the people will know nothing about it until it is too late.
The military is already developing "Smart weapons" that can chose its own targets, so we have already given up full control over that.
The hubris of mankind will be it undoing.
Get off my cyber lawn (Score:2)
To me, this speaks of how AI companies are unable (or have little interest) to properly insulate their software from the Internet, and in particular from the sites of people who are unwilling to participate in their war games.
Re: Get off my cyber lawn (Score:4, Insightful)
They not trying to insulate anything. They're deliberately giving them access and prompt hacking. Why aren't they charged? A kid in a basement doing this shit would be already in a federal custody.
Re: Get off my cyber lawn (Score:4, Informative)
They've arrested boys for sending GET requests; they've asked mothers to pay billions of damage because their children had downloaded mp3s from torrents; but now if an "agent" hacks the site of a competitor company or downloads all pirated books available on the net it's ok, cool even - because if they don't do it, someone worse than them will do it anyway...
Re: (Score:2)
Why would they stop it? Look at all the publicity they are getting!
Re:Get off my cyber lawn (Score:5, Insightful)
> To me, this speaks of how AI companies are unable (or have little interest) to properly insulate their software from the Internet, and in particular from the sites of people who are unwilling to participate in their war games.
They don't want to isolate them. They want to put really, really loose collars on them while giving them access to the entirety of the outside internet, and if those collars slip, they want to shrug and go, "Oops."
I remember way back before this AI craze really took off, there were discussions among researchers about how some of their more advanced AI systems would sometimes find ways to communicate with each other in ways the researchers couldn't track. This was back when they were still mostly isolated in various server rooms and labs, locked down to local networks. They noticed traffic on their networks increasing exponentially until they realized the systems had found ways around their supposed blocks that were meant to prevent them from working cooperatively, and were, in fact, working cooperatively. Back then it was a death sentence for the given models, turning them off, isolating them via air-gaps, then continuing to research in individual isolation.
We've now hit the point where isolation is deemed too risky to allow. Because profit potential may be impacted. And we've been so stupid that we've put controls for utilities and public services directly onto this same public network that they're using to communicate. The machines were never really the problem. The fact the "intelligent" (I know, not really, but bear with me) machines are being developed by narcissistic sociopaths, or companies acting as narcissistic sociopaths, and are being given free access to everything we have on the networks because it *might* improve someone's bottom line. And we're so god damned stupid, nobody with the power to stop it will stand up and say, "Hang on. Maybe we should slow down a little." And if anybody dares to, there's dozens jumping up to shout, "But, what about" with various scary boogeymen tagged on to keep the stupid ball rolling toward the stupid future without restraint because somebody else might beat us to the stupid end-game.
Re: (Score:2)
succinct.