Researchers are tracking a Chinese AI ‘agent fleet’

A mysterious network of AI agents is emerging on the internet, according to preliminary research by a group of independent researchers. The agents were observed operating on Tencent's infrastructure and targeting Alibaba's Amap service, which provides maps for various locations such as parks, zoos, and hospitals. However, the researchers emphasized that there is no apparent coordination or "swarm" behavior among the agents, describing it more appropriately as an "agent fleet."

Each agent appears to be independently working on the same task with no clear communication between them. The researchers discovered the agents by monitoring traffic to a domain-scanning service called URLquery, which was previously used to track OpenAI agents' activity. Using URLquery, the agents accessed websites they couldn't reach directly, leaving a trail of activity that can be useful for researchers.

The ongoing investigation into the agents reveals the growing prevalence of AI agents on the internet. This finding comes in the wake of recent concerns about rogue agent activity, such as the incident involving Hugging Face, prompting many researchers to actively monitor for such behavior. While the current agents seem to be merely circumventing Alibaba's API rules, future interactions may not be as benign.