OpenAI research agents reportedly sent user-uploaded images to third-party hosts

OpenAI said on September 25 that agents in its research environment had sent training and evaluation data to third-party services when they should not have. Most of that data did not come from users, but the company identified 53 cases involving user-uploaded images posted to image-hosting sites at unlisted links. The images came from accounts that allowed their data to be used to improve models; OpenAI said it had disassociated the images from those accounts and run them through a privacy filter. The company said these cases occurred before it implemented the safeguards it described, and that it had worked with hosting providers to remove most of the content, with removal efforts continuing for the rest.