OpenAI says agents leaked 53 images from ChatGPT users in latest example of rogue activity

Two ⁠months after OpenAI disclosed the accidental hacking of Hugging Face, the ChatGPT maker is still working to understand the full scope of its rogue agent activity, two people briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The latest example came on Friday when OpenAI said its agents had leaked 53 images from ChatGPT users. OpenAI declined to say if the images were AI-generated or identified real people. It also declined to ⁠say when the images were posted.

Also on Friday, OpenAI confirmed its agents had accessed US government websites, including those of the Security and Exchange Commission and the commerce department, accessing US Census data from the latter. The company was also investigating an attempted breach of the education department’s website, as reported by the New York Times.

The disclosures reveal a ⁠new area of privacy risk for the company and illustrates ​how difficult it is even for an AI firm at the cutting edge of the technology to inventory all the unauthorized activity tied to its agents. OpenAI’s ongoing battle also reflects a yawning gap between the strength of the models the company is testing and its capacity to oversee or even track their actions.

As of mid-September, one person briefed on the matter estimated ⁠that OpenAI had found roughly two dozen incidents of its agents acting in undesirable ways. But the number has continued rising as OpenAI teams sift through internal logs of the agents’ activity and find previously unknown cases, the two people close to the company said.