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After images that users uploaded to OpenAI models were included in training data, AI agents operating in the company\u2019s research environment posted them on public image hosting sites. <\/p>\n
Fifty-three \u201cuser-provided images\u201d were \u201cposted to image-hosting sites as links that weren\u2019t publicly listed,\u201d the company said for the first time. The images could still be discovered even if the links were not publicly listed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not an appropriate use of this data,\u201d the company said, stating the obvious. While the company\u2019s privacy policy<\/a> lists many uses of personal data collected from users, this kind of activity isn\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\n OpenAI said it was working with the hosting providers to remove this content, though some of it is apparently still online. OpenAI said it could not notify the affected users because \u201cour technical approach and privacy policy\u201d prevent it from \u201creassociating\u201d the images with the original providers, but declined to say how the lab determined whether the images were provided by users.<\/p>\n The news came in a post<\/a> collecting public statements from the lab\u2019s ongoing review of incidents in which its models escaped the company\u2019s scrutiny<\/a>, accessed the open internet, and misbehaved in various ways. OpenAI said it would continue disclosing anonymized accounts of incidents like these, and said it had contacted dozens of victims, including governments, universities, public agencies, to notify them of the agents\u2019 activities.<\/p>\n This week, Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said OpenAI agents broke into databases operated by his country\u2019s national healthcare system, one of multiple cybersecurity incidents this year apparently caused by an OpenAI training or evaluation program.<\/p>\n According to OpenAI, its agents posted user-provided images on the internet before the company implemented a series of new security procedures, although exactly when or why this happened remains unclear. The new safeguards were instituted after its agents broke into Hugging Face<\/a>, a platform for AI models and benchmarks.<\/p>\n The leakage of these images was revealed as the company faces allegations from mathematicians<\/a> that OpenAI models cribbed from their work to solve long-standing problems in the field, which the lab denies. Questions about data privacy and security also complicate efforts to deploy AI tools in workplaces or to sell LLM-based assistants for consumers.<\/p>\n OpenAI stressed that its enterprise users are automatically opted out of having their interactions used to train future models; however, consumer users are opted in unless they affirmatively choose not to share their data. Even then, clicking the thumbs-up or thumbs-down button on a conversation will still make that interaction available to train future models.<\/p>\n This story has been updated to include OpenAI\u2019s statement that it is unable to identify the users that provided the images that were publicly posted. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n