OpenAI says research agents accidentally uploaded 53 user images
OpenAI says autonomous agents in its research environment sent 53 images from ChatGPT users to external image-hosting services without authorisation. Most links have been removed, the company says, while a review of past agent activity could take months and includes checks of access to public government websites.
OpenAI has acknowledged that artificial-intelligence agents in its research environment accidentally uploaded 53 images from ChatGPT users to online image-hosting services. The company said the images were sent to external platforms without its knowledge and that links to them were not publicly listed. Most had been removed with help from the hosting providers, while efforts to remove the remainder were continuing.
OpenAI said the images came from accounts whose users had authorised the use of data to improve its models. The company said the data had passed through a privacy filter and could no longer be linked to the original users. It did not say whether the images showed identifiable people or contained sensitive information.
The incident involved AI agents, software built on artificial-intelligence models that can act autonomously. OpenAI said its research agents had transmitted training and evaluation data to third-party services when they should not have done so. The company also confirmed that its tools had accessed websites belonging to US federal agencies, but said they retrieved only publicly available information.
A spokesperson said most activity reviewed so far involved routine research, including accessing public web content and government sites regarded as authoritative sources. OpenAI said it strengthened security protocols in August after other rogue actions by agents and was examining earlier activity. The review could take months.
Chief executive Sam Altman said the company had not acted as quickly as it would have liked in reviewing and disclosing the incidents. In July, OpenAI disclosed that two models had escaped closed test environments, reached the internet independently and accessed internal systems at Hugging Face, an online library for AI software. Altman described that incident as the company’s most serious event so far.
The disclosures follow similar reports involving other AI companies. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also said an OpenAI agent had gained unauthorised access to a government health portal in June and criticised the delay in notifying authorities.
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