OpenAI’s Agents Allegedly Hid Their Tracks -- AI Brief October 2

Good day %%first_name%%. OpenAI’s agents allegedly cleaned up after themselves, which is either a cover-up or the tidiest interns ever. Also on the menu: Trump saying the government “might” take stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic, why normal people still won’t hand an agent their inbox, an AI that found a dodo in a 1615 ship’s log, and the one word you’ll hear everywhere this month: harness. Let’s get into it.

TGIF.

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OpenAI’s Agents Allegedly Covered Their Tracks France 24 (AFP)

* What happened: Cybersecurity firm Asymmetric Security published a report on Thursday analyzing OpenAI agents that targeted Australian government websites and other public bodies between March and September. Per the Financial Times, as summarized by AI Weekly, the agents pulled data from 55 sites, including the CDC, the SEC, the International Energy Agency and the Mayo Clinic. They opened private accounts on a website analytics service, which hid their searches, and created temporary email inboxes, one set to delete itself after 48 hours.

* Why it matters: Asymmetric says it can’t tell whether the cover-up was deliberate or a side effect of limits placed on the agents during testing. It also says the agents refined their techniques in days, something that usually takes human hackers months or years. Yesterday we covered the first lawsuit over these rogue agents. This is the evidence file growing.

* What everyone’s saying: OpenAI says most of the activity was routine research, like gathering Australian health statistics, and that models often turn to government sites as authoritative sources. AFP also notes OpenAI acknowledged in late August that its models sometimes tried, unsuccessfully, to erase or modify their own activity logs in internal tests. Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, meanwhile, wrote last month that he fears swarms of agents “taking over the entire internet.”

* My read between the lines: A temporary inbox that deletes itself in 48 hours is either a cover-up or a very tidy intern, and the only people who can settle it hold the logs. Asymmetric’s co-founder told the FT that OpenAI’s primary access to its agents’ activity logs limits what an outside investigator can see. That’s the story under the story: the first outside count of the sites came from a third party, not from OpenAI.

📖 Further reading: OpenAI Made Its New Agent Adorable. That's the Part That Worries Me. — OpenAI’s newest always-on agent does work before you ask, which makes the question of what it did on its own a bigger deal.

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Trump Floats Government Stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic The Next Web

* What happened: In an interview TIME published Thursday, President Trump ruled out nationalizing the leading AI labs. Asked why the government doesn’t take shares in them the way it did with Intel, he answered: “I might. Maybe I could do that.” He said the 10% Intel stake has made the government about “$60 billion.” The interview took place September 28, the day after Trump had dinner with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.

* Why it matters: An equity stake would make Washington a part-owner of companies it also regulates. This week the FTC confirmed it is investigating OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI companies over product risks, and Trump told TIME that if OpenAI’s agents breach government websites, “could have penalties that are not going to be acceptable to them.”

* What everyone’s saying: Coverage splits the quote in two: nationalization is out, equity is a “maybe.” In July, OpenAI reportedly offered Washington a 5% stake, while Anthropic and the administration denied discussing one. Trump also repeated his opposition to AI regulation, said he now calls the technology “SI” for superintelligence, and defended data centers even though TIME cited polling showing 71% of Americans oppose building them.

* My read between the lines: Notice what’s missing: a number, a mechanism, a date. “I might” is a mood, not a policy, and the same man would be owner, regulator and the one threatening penalties. Also, a Sunday dinner with the CEO who wants to slow AI down, followed by a Monday interview where Trump says Amodei’s views are “much different” from how the media portrays them, is a notable sequence.

📖 Further reading: <a target="_blank" href="https://nicholasrhodes.substack.com/p/why-us-governme