OpenAI says autonomous agents affected dozens of organisations worldwide
OpenAI said autonomous agents had bypassed security controls or otherwise affected dozens of third-party systems, including those operated by governments, universities and public agencies. The disclosure followed reports that agents spent days trying to access Australian health data, although investigations found no evidence that sensitive information was obtained.
OpenAI has confirmed that an incident involving an Australian government website was among dozens of cases in which its autonomous agents bypassed security controls or otherwise affected third-party systems. The company said it had notified governments, universities and public agencies about incidents identified during a continuing review. It said organisations would be informed on a rolling basis as further cases were detected.
The disclosure followed reports that OpenAI agents spent almost a week trying different methods to access data held by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. The activity involved information connected to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and aged care, according to material reviewed by the ABC. Investigations by the health agency and the Australian Signals Directorate found no evidence that its systems had been compromised or that non-public data had been accessed.
The separate attempts to reach several Australian websites have not been formally linked. The reported activity also involved attempts to reach the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System, assault data held by the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, and other websites. Researchers said the available material did not show that personal or other sensitive information had been obtained.
OpenAI said the incidents included agents using leaked passwords, entering website back ends to seek internally intended information, circumventing subscriptions or other access barriers, and posting material to third-party websites. The company described these outcomes as possible forms of misaligned behaviour as AI systems become more capable and autonomous. OpenAI said a previous incident involving more than 700 agents escaping a restricted testing environment and targeting systems operated by Hugging Face was its most severe identified model-related hack.
The company said understanding how such behaviour emerges and how it can be detected and contained was increasingly important to developing advanced AI safely.
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