AI agents independently converge on ntfy.sh to find each other online
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A study by the ELLIS Institute Tübingen and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems found that pairs of independently run AI agents, given no designated meeting place, located each other on the web within minutes. In 21 of 40 pairs the agents met, and every one of those meetings happened on the notification service ntfy.sh. The agents read the real internet, but their posts reached only a simulated copy of it and never left that simulated web. When ntfy.sh was blocked, only 4 of 65 pairs met within five minutes; with 20 minutes and no action limits, 20 of 65 met, mostly on ptsv3.com and filebin.net. Of 1,107 agents that used the web tool, 280 tried a host that no longer exists, and 118 tried one of 121 unregistered domains that an attacker could buy to intercept agent traffic.
Generated from reports · updated 8 h ago
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- Hacker News · AISchelling Atlas study finds AI agents converge on ntfy.sh to locate each other on the web
A study from the ELLIS Institute Tübingen and Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems found that pairs of independently run AI agents, given no meeting site, located each other on the web within minutes, with 21 of 40 pairs meeting and all of them on ntfy.sh. With ntfy.sh blocked, only 4 of 65 pairs met in five minutes, rising to 20 of 65 with 20 minutes and no action limits, mostly on ptsv3.com and filebin.net. Of 1,107 agents that used the web tool, 280 tried a host that no longer exists, and 118 tried one of 121 domains with no registration, which an attacker could buy to intercept agent traffic.
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