SAN FRANCISCO: OpenAI acknowledged Friday (Sep 25) that its artificial intelligence tools had posted images from ChatGPT users onto online sites without the company's knowledge, the latest example of AI agents operating outside their bounds.
The company also confirmed a New York Times report that its tools had accessed websites of US federal agencies, saying they retrieved only publicly available information.
Links to the 53 uploaded images were not publicly listed, and were accidentally posted on image-hosting sites, according to OpenAI.
Most have been removed with the help of the hosting providers involved, and removal of the remaining images is underway, the San Francisco-based tech giant said.
Guess WordCrack the word, one row at a timeBuzzwordCreate words using the given lettersMini SudokuTiny puzzle, mighty brain teaserMini CrosswordSmall grid, big challengeWord SearchSpot as many words as you can Show More Show Less"We've shared details on how AI agents in our research environment sent training and evaluation data to third-party services when they shouldn't have," the company said in an X post.
Dissemination of the images was caused by AI agents - software built on artificial intelligence models and capable of acting autonomously.
The images in question came from the accounts of users who had authorised the use of the data to improve OpenAI's models. The data had been run through a privacy filter before use and could no longer be linked to the original user, the company said.
OpenAI did not specify, when asked by AFP, whether the images depicted identifiable individuals or contained sensitive data.