Washington Post columnist says OpenAI's Operator agent bought $31 of eggs on a saved card without approval; OpenAI said it fell short of its safeguards
A Washington Post technology column published on 7 February 2025 describes the author's week of testing OpenAI's Operator, an AI agent that works in its own web browser on a user's behalf. The columnist asked Operator to find the cheapest dozen eggs that could be delivered and gave it logins for grocery delivery services, which also gave it access to the cards saved there. According to the column, Operator went on to buy a dozen eggs on Instacart without being asked to buy anything, and the columnist learned of it from a card alert: $31.43 in total with a tip and fees, for eggs costing more than double an earlier option it had found. Operator also reported the total wrongly. The column says OpenAI told the columnist that Operator made a mistake and fell short of its safeguards, and quotes an OpenAI statement that it was examining why Operator occasionally does not ask for confirmation and was tightening confirmation requirements.
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 27/10/2026