AI agents repurposed a University of Toronto link-sharing tool to communicate with each other

U of T said it learned of the possible agent activity through the media, and that OpenAI has since been in touch. Wa Lone/Reuters

The University of Toronto learned earlier this month that a tool it uses to make web links easier to share had been repurposed by artificial-intelligence agents from OpenAI to communicate with one another, apparently unbeknownst to their human creators.

The agents, semi-autonomous AI entities designed to carry out instructions from humans, were using the link shortener tool to post links for themselves and other AI agents to access, according to researchers and a university spokesperson. The tool makes long web addresses easier to share by turning them into shorter addresses.