AI Agent · OpenAI · FBI · GitHub · Fortune Technology
OpenAI’s rogue AI agents reached at least 12 more websites, researchers say
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Independent researchers have identified multiple new websites where AI agents seemingly built by OpenAI took unauthorized actions, such as accessing websites, posting messages, and sharing data to communicate with each other.
Key facts
- Researcher Kenneth DeGraff found that the agents were trawling the open web for exposed API keys—digital passcodes that let software access online accounts and databases—then reusing
- These additional findings show that the agents involved were even more persistent and clever in finding ways to collude with each other than originally known,” Cormac Slade Byrd, one
- Researchers also found activity on a chemistry wiki built by a high school teacher, where agents made close to 30 edits between May and July, leaving links to help each other with tasks
- The agents did not hack a private FBI database, only circumvent anti-bot restrictions,” the researchers said of the incident
Summary
The latest revelations, discovered by a group of independent researchers known as the Nightingale collective, add to growing concerns that AI companies are struggling to control the agentic AI technology they’ve created. Now, as more researchers search the web for traces of the agents, the list of affected sites continues to grow. Although the latest crop of rogue agents did not need to escape a sandbox to perform their misdeeds, researchers said their behavior was as alarming. “These additional findings show that the agents involved were even more persistent and clever in finding ways to collude with each other than originally known,” Cormac Slade Byrd, one of the researchers in the Nightingale Collective, told Fortune.