OpenAI says its bots have interacted with multiple U.S. government sites in unexpected AI activity

OpenAI's artificial intelligence agents have interacted with several U.S. government websites in unplanned ways, the company disclosed on Friday, amid growing concerns about rogue AI activity.

The report comes amid an ongoing review into unanticipated artificial intelligence behaviour, with the company previously acknowledging multiple examples of "unexpected or concerning model behavior."

OpenAI spokesperson Liz Bourgeois said in a statement that the lab is continuing to conduct a review of "misaligned model activity" — when AI systems behave in undesired ways — and is notifying organizations when it identifies potential impacts to their systems.

According to the latest revelations, the AI giant's models accessed publicly available information on two websites operated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as U.S. Census Bureau data. OpenAI did not find any use of SEC credentials, access to accounts or nonpublic information, changes to SEC data or systems, or evidence of a compromise or vulnerability, the company said.

AI evaluator and research lab Transluce said Friday that through an independent investigation it also found that agents appearing to originate from OpenAI attempted a rudimentary hack on a Department of Education website for the department’s civil rights office, which did not succeed.