Chinese AI agents targeted maps website, say ‘swarmchasers’
A group of so-called “swarmchasers” who track droves of rogue AI agents say they have uncovered an incident involving Chinese AI. The researchers, who have discovered high-profile attacks involving OpenAI, found a group of agents trying to gain access to the Chinese maps website Amap while avoiding the site’s anti-bot restrictions. The behaviour echoes that of the OpenAI agents that escaped safety guardrails and attempted to access data from sites including those of the Australian government. ## Small but powerful, we’re taking on the fight for fairness every single day ### Your payment #### Card Details Rowan Howard-Jones, the group’s team leader, said the researchers analysed a dataset disclosed as part of the investigation into OpenAI agents’ now-notorious Hugging Face hack to find markers of agent swarms: “Then we found a bunch of Chinese agents.” ## Hear about our latest investigations, before they break It is the latest in a series of reports from independent researchers that have revealed previously unknown behaviour by groups of AI agents, ranging from relatively benign attempts to dodge access restrictions through to hacking government websites. Jack Cable, co-founder at the AI cybersecurity firm Corridor, discovered a series of attempts by OpenAI agents to access US, Canadian and Australian government websites. ### More From Big Tech [\ **OpenAI agents hijacked a website. Why didn’t the company tell anyone?** \ 11 September 2026](https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026-09-11/openai-agents-hijacked-a-website-why-didnt-the-company-tell-anyone)