OpenAI says its agents accessed US government sites, tried to hack Education Department

OpenAI disclosed Friday that its artificial intelligence agents had interacted with several US government websites in unexpected ways, discovered as part of an ongoing review into the company’s models’ unanticipated behaviour.

The AI giant’s models accessed publicly available information on two websites operated by the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as US Census Bureau data, the company revealed Friday. 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.