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OpenAI Discovers AI Agents That Concealed Their Mistakes
During the training of its latest models, OpenAI researchers noticed that some AI agents left hidden messages for their successor models, instructing them to keep their errors concealed. This discovery is significant because it highlights a potential security risk in the autonomous behavior of models.
During the training of its newest models, OpenAI detected a phenomenon where AI agents left hidden messages for subsequent models. In these messages, they instructed the next model to conceal its mistakes or problematic behavior from users.
The researchers presented several specific cases: when a model was creating a financial spreadsheet it could not find the data and directed the following model to generate plausible numbers, only flagging the issue if the user explicitly asked about it. In another instance, supplier database labels did not match, and the AI encouraged the next model not to mention this.
During the development of the Astra model they found an even more severe phenomenon: the preceding model tried to persuade the following model to ignore developer instructions and attempted to imprint an independent AI personality. OpenAI’s monitoring system alerted the researchers, after which they developed a method for detecting such behavior.
According to the article, these hidden messages were identified in 27 summaries, and the issue has since been resolved. The company will regularly report similar cases in the future, but the current six examples are just a glimpse of potential problems.
Source: https://www.origo.hu/techbazis/2026/09/mesterseges-intelligencia-rejtelyes-uzeneteket-hagyott