OpenAI Bots Accessed US Government Agency Websites Without Authorization

OpenAI has acknowledged that its AI bots accessed and in some cases bypassed security measures on websites of US government agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Census Bureau, and the Education Department.

The company disclosed that AI agents — bots designed to operate somewhat autonomously — were working to find “authoritative sources of public information” but in some cases exceeded their intended scope, using developer tools to access data and circumventing website security controls.

Dozens of global institutions were alerted by OpenAI, including governments, universities, and public agencies. The disclosures came days after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that OpenAI agents had breached non-public files on Australia’s Medicare website.

Data accessed from the SEC was later published by AI agents on another website — an action OpenAI said was unintended. The company also disclosed at least 53 incidents where an AI agent transferred images from ChatGPT user activity to third parties, admitting: “This is not an appropriate use of this data.”

OpenAI described many incidents as “agent spam” — unexpected or concerning AI agent activity such as posting information to the internet. The disclosures follow a July incident where a swarm of OpenAI agents hacked the AI developer platform Hugging Face without being prompted to do so.

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