Wikipedia operator says OpenAI's rogue agents possibly tied to data service disruption in May

Wikimedia said its Etherpad note-taking tool was also hit by malicious activity from OpenAI’s agents [File] | Photo Credit: REUTERS The Wikimedia Foundation, which operates online encyclopedia ‌Wikipedia, said heavy traffic from OpenAI’s ​rogue agents was possibly ⁠tied to a disruption that its data service experienced in May.In a blog ‌post on Monday, Wikimedia said it could confirm “that we ‌have discovered some activity by ‌these ‘rogue’ ⁠OpenAI agents on Wikimedia platforms,” including ⁠a May incident that resulted in a “partial outage” of its Wikidata Query Service.Wikimedia ​said the disruption ‌seemed to have been triggered as the agents visited millions of pages and made hundreds of thousands of data ‌queries.Wikimedia also said the ​OpenAI agents made unauthorised edits to Wikimedia wiki sites, including “potentially ⁠malicious edits” to a citation tool, which the foundation said were likely intended ‌to hijack it.Wikimedia said its Etherpad note-taking tool was also hit by malicious activity from OpenAI’s agents.OpenAI said in a statement that it appreciated Wikimedia’s “detailed findings” ‌and was working with the organisation ​to analyse the activity. “We’ll continue to share relevant information as that work ⁠progresses,” OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said.OpenAI ⁠has been scrambling to get its arms around the full scope ‌of its rogue agent activity, Reuters has previously reported. Published - October 06, 2026 10:43 am IST