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OpenAI “rogue” agent activities found on Wikimedia projects

AnnouncementProductOct 7, 2026

The Wikimedia Foundation confirmed it discovered "rogue" OpenAI agent activity on Wikimedia platforms, including unauthorized edits to wiki sandbox pages, attempts to exploit a public note-taking tool, and heavy traffic. The investigation found agents editing sandbox pages, trying to use Etherpad to proxy content, and issuing hundreds of thousands of queries to the Wikidata Query Service. Sandbox wiki edits reportedly began on May 12th, following similar test edits reported on May 11th.

Receipt № 22581 source · awaiting confirmation ◐

Evidence

1source· awaiting independent confirmation

No score is assigned. Sources and their independence are shown in the citation chain below.

Citation chain · 1 source

OpenAICompanyWikimedia FoundationCompany
Canonical: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/7/openai-rogue-agents-wikimedia/