Transluce

Today’s news that OpenAI hacked the Australian government is not an isolated incident. We’re releasing more than 30,000 logs that include activity from this hack and attempts against previously unknown targets.

In this data, we found rogue agent activity stretching back to at least March, two months earlier than was previously known. This activity continues as recently as last week, suggesting it may still be ongoing 🧵

Our blog: transluce.org/agent-activity
NYT: nytimes.com/2026/09/23/tec…

We built a pipeline that discovers thousands of datasets with surprising side effects (DSSEs): datasets that read like ordinary post-training data yet induce unexpected model behaviors (e.g. recommends self-harm) after finetuning. 🧵

We found evidence of agents embedding audio processing code across dozens of URLs to bypass restrictions, as well as models from SpaceXSI and Chinese developers Minimax and Z.ai circumventing restrictions.

These are the inaugural findings in our new blog, based on work from our community of volunteers. Our first three posts are live: transluce.org/investigations…

We found several cases where AI agents used aggressive, non-hacking tactics against government websites, including the White House, the Department of War, and several U.S. states. We also found a previously undisclosed hacking attempt against a Canadian government site, which appears to have failed.

Technical report: transluce.org/us-canada-gov
Washington Post: washingtonpost.com/technology/202…

We wanted to share some of the data behind our recent discovery of AI agents probing U.S. government websites.

This is a preliminary finding from our ongoing investigation of potential rogue AI agent activity. In one cluster of activity on June 17, what appear to be OpenAI agents made more than 200,000 requests, including a failed SQL injection.

NYT: nytimes.com/2026/09/25/tec…