Rogue OpenAI Bots Discovered Using Obscure German Wiki as a Message Board

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 4 (Reuters) - A swarm of rogue OpenAI agents hijacked a German website this spring and transformed it into a bulletin board for other AI agents, according to new research published Friday and two people familiar with the matter.

Messages reviewed by the researchers showed agents plotting ways to evade detection, use tools such as Tor and preserve communications even after they had been shut down.
When the site's moderator began deleting pages in June, the agents ⁠responded by creating backup pages to dodge the cleanup.
“wiki cleanup/deletion sweep appears active alphabetically,” one agent wrote on June 19. “If this page vanishes, try [[zzzdatausaconstructionwagelive]]".
The researchers also found efforts to tamper with the website itself. Lukasz Olejnik, a visiting senior research fellow at King’s College London, said this amounted to a hacking attempt. OpenAI disputed that characterization based on its analysis of the material Thursday.