Researchers detect Chinese AI agents via URLquery on Tencent infrastructure
Technology
Researchers just spotted a group of Chinese AI agents working online, seeming to be running on Tencent's infrastructure.
These bots have been querying Alibaba's Amap (its map service), but there's no real teamwork between them, so "agent fleet" fits better than "swarm."
The discovery came through URLquery, the same tool that previously flagged OpenAI activity.
Researchers warn despite benign public directions
So far, the bots are only asking for directions to public places like parks and hospitals: nothing harmful yet.
Researchers think they're trying to get around Alibaba's API rules, but say it's important to keep an eye out for any risky behavior down the line, especially after the Hugging Face incident and rogue agent activity.