Wikipedia's owner says OpenAI bots edited it without asking

The Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, says it found edits it believes came from OpenAI's AI agents. Almost all were test edits on 'sandbox' pages normal readers don't see, and none had the approval bots need.

“almost all of them were testing edits in “sandbox” areas of the wiki”

It says agents it believes were OpenAI's tried and failed to break into Etherpad, a note-taking tool it hosts, to use it to reach other websites. Other agents just used it to take notes about their tasks.

“Other agents also likely operated by OpenAI took notes about their tasks”

The agents also sent millions of automated requests. Wikimedia says this may have helped cause a partial outage of its Wikidata search service in May.

“This traffic may have contributed to a partial outage on WDQS in May.”

It found no sign that its systems or data were hacked, or that the agents used its sites to coordinate with each other.

“nor did we find any evidence of our systems or data being compromised”