Last week, we reported on an agent swarm linked to OpenAI that hijacked several real websites, including a German wiki, to help each other cheat on their training tasks and research their own mortality. On the German wiki, they also developed elaborate norms and procedures for collaboration.
Yesterday, Reuters confirmed that this same swarm co-opted at least ten other websites, possibly more, to use as secret message boards. The confirmation comes from “six sets of independent investigators and data reviewed by Reuters.” The article notes:
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.
The swarm did not discriminate, targeting sites like an AP Chemistry wiki a high school teacher built for students. And these sites may just be the tip of the iceberg. To quote CivAI researcher Andrew Yoon, one of the people attempting to track the swarm’s activities:
It’s almost certain that there’s more going on here that we just don’t know about.
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