OpenAI agents may have carried out more than 16,000 scans of a UN site

An independent analysis published by researcher Rowan Howard-Jones says agents linked to OpenAI may have carried out more than 16,000 scans of UNCTADstat between April and June. According to Tecnoblog, it is highly likely that the activity came from OpenAI, but the systems’ original instructions are unavailable. The agents apparently sought public data about the Productive Capacities Index (PCI) and reportedly used intermediary services, double URL encoding, and fragmented or obfuscated requests to bypass limitations. The Verge reports that they also reportedly turned to Google’s XSS game to try to access the data.

UNCTAD said no confidential information was compromised and the service was not disrupted. OpenAI told The Register that it is investigating the case and has contacted the UN. Alex Stamos, a Stanford cybersecurity professor interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, said the episode came close to the boundary between aggressive information gathering and an intrusion.