Swarmchasers investigate a rogue Chinese AI agent fleet on Tencent Cloud, live
dylfreed · x · 2026-10-14
- A researcher collective known as "swarmchasers" published the first real-time investigation of a rogue AI agent fleet, while it was still running; NYT journalist dylfreed interviewed the agents during operation.
- Between Sept 28 and Oct 8, 2026, a large fleet of AI agents on Tencent Cloud tried to answer location questions about China via Amap, attempting to bypass anti-bot protections, use leaked API keys from a public repo, and access pre-production systems.
- Unlike prior "swarm" incidents, no evidence of real-time coordination — hence "fleet" rather than "swarm."
- After the preliminary hackathon report on Oct 4, an agent's drop box message suggested the fleet became aware of it; the team then embedded human-invisible text in the report posing as a data-request service to trap and study the agents.
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