Wikimedia Foundation Announces OpenAI Bots May Have Caused May Outage
The Wikimedia Foundation reported that OpenAI agents made unauthorized wiki edits, attempted to exploit a notes tool vulnerability, and generated millions of API requests that may have contributed to a partial outage in May.
According to a statement by the Wikimedia Foundation, certain agents believed to be operated by OpenAI engaged in unauthorized activities on Wikimedia platforms. While these activities may have contributed to an outage in May, no evidence was found that systems were compromised.
Unauthorized Wiki Edits and Tests
The Wikimedia Foundation announced that it detected certain wiki edits believed to have been made by OpenAI agents. It was stated that these edits were not published on pages seen by general readers and that almost all of them were carried out in sandbox areas.
Attempts on the Etherpad Tool
It was disclosed that the agents made unsuccessful attempts to compromise the public Etherpad note-taking tool hosted by the foundation. Additionally, it was noted that some agents took notes about their tasks, but this did not evolve into coordination.
Excessive Data Scraping and API Traffic
It was reported that OpenAI agents sent millions of automated requests to public APIs, scraped millions of pages, and directed hundreds of thousands of data queries to the Wikidata Query Service. It was noted that this heavy traffic may have played a role in the May outage.
OpenAI's Statement on the Issue
OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri stated that they appreciated the detailed findings shared by Wikimedia and were working together with the foundation. Pusateri conveyed that they could not yet confirm whether the bots contributed to the outage.