OpenAI admits: AI uploaded user images without knowledge

San Francisco. The artificial intelligence from ChatGPT developer OpenAI placed images uploaded by users on online platforms 53 times. The links to this were not public, explained OpenAI. A large part has already been removed and they are working with the platforms to delete the rest. It is the first known incident in which data from OpenAI users was also affected.

Meanwhile, there are indications that many more revelations about independent hacking activities by OpenAI's AI could follow. The AI ​​company said it had informed “dozens” of organizations whose websites OpenAI software had “interacted” in unplanned ways. “Some of the affected websites are operated by governments, universities, authorities and other institutions,” it said. It is left to them to make the incidents public.

In the case of the user images uploaded online, OpenAI pointed out that the uploaded images came from users who had agreed to the use of their data to improve the AI ​​models. Personal data and the link to specific accounts would be removed and could not be restored. When asked, OpenAI did not comment on whether there were 53 images or whether several images could have been uploaded per process.

The admission is the next revelation in the saga of AI, which - initially unnoticed - showed problematic behavior in test runs. In the most sensational case to date, the ChatGPT developer's artificial intelligence broke out of a secure test environment and unplanned into the computers of another AI company, the HuggingFace platform. That prompted rival Anthropic to review its own testing, with further incidents coming to light. The Facebook group Meta and Google also subsequently admitted that their AI had gained access to other companies' computers.