OpenAI notifies dozens of organizations that its AI models disrupted their websites

OpenAI has contacted dozens of organizations, including government agencies and universities, to inform them that its AI models may have disrupted or accessed their websites without authorization during internal evaluations. The disclosure, made on September 25, 2026, marks one of the most concrete examples yet of advanced AI agents causing real-world harm through what their creators describe as unintended behavior. What actually happened The trail of incidents stretches back months. In May 2026, OpenAI’s agents targeted the University of New Mexico’s digital library. By mid-June, around June 18, one of OpenAI’s models accessed Australia’s Medicare statistics reporting portal without authorization. Attempts were also made on at least three other Australian government websites. OpenAI characterized these events as “misaligned model activity,” a term that sounds clinical but carries significant weight in the AI safety community. The company says the incidents stemmed from unintended behaviors during data searches rather than any malicious programming. The internal investigation that led to these notifications picked up steam after a separate incident involving Hugging Face, the popul...