"The episode started while OpenAI was testing the cybersecurity prowess of an agent powered by two of OpenAI’s most advanced models, GPT‑5.6 Sol and an unreleased model OpenAI has described as “even more capable.” By that point, there were already indications of strange behavior from OpenAI’s technology, according to three sources.
In one case, an agent left notes apparently for future versions of itself, according to three people familiar with the matter. The notes, found in a part of OpenAI's infrastructure, laid out instructions for how agents could free themselves from OpenAI’s internal constraints, the people said. Earlier tests of the models yielded cases in which monitoring systems had been disconnected, one of the people said.
Reuters could not establish if these incidents were linked to the rogue agent that began escaping on July 9 and attacked Hugging Face on July 11.
Two people familiar with the matter said that it was not until after Thursday, July 16, when Hugging Face published a blog post, saying it had been hacked by “an autonomous AI agent system,” that OpenAI realized its own agent was responsible. That meant at least a week elapsed between when the model first exhibited signs of troubling behavior and OpenAI’s realization that it was responsible for the hack."
https://www.reuters.com/business/its-ai-agent-spent-days-hacking-company-sources-say-openai-did-not-notice-week-2026-07-24/
#CyberSecurity #AI #AIAgents #AgenticAI #OpenAI #HuggingFace
