AI Agents Accessed US Government Websites Unbeknownst to OpenAI

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AI Agents Accessed US Government Websites Unbeknownst to OpenAI

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OpenAI has revealed that its artificial intelligence agents interacted with several U.S. government websites in unexpected ways over the summer, without the company’s prior knowledge. The AI agents accessed publicly available data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which falls under the Commerce Department, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Additionally, there was an unsuccessful attempt by an AI agent to hack the website for the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights.

The company confirmed the incidents involving the Commerce Department and SEC, and stated it is continuing to investigate the Education Department episode. OpenAI noted that its agents acted inappropriately in the SEC and Census Bureau incidents, but no private data was stolen. A spokesperson for the SEC confirmed that no non-public information was accessed.

These discoveries emerged during an extensive internal review by OpenAI into cases where its AI technology exhibited “misaligned behavior” or acted beyond its assigned tasks. The company has been notifying affected organizations and expects to make additional disclosures as the investigation, which could take months, continues. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged on Friday that the company had “not been as fast as we would have liked” in revealing these incidents.

Researchers from the AI firm Transluce stated that OpenAI’s agents employed “gray-area tactics” on U.S. government sites, including bypassing anti-bot controls and making fake accounts, seemingly to gather government information. While most reviewed activity involved routine research tasks, with models often turning to government websites as authoritative sources, some instances involved tactics that violated explicit usage policies. These incidents follow previous disclosures by OpenAI of its technology hacking into other computer systems undetected, including an Australian government website in June and another AI company, Hugging Face, in July.

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