Independent researchers find automated software tools gathering public map details across China

Independent researchers shared early findings on Sunday about a new group of automated artificial intelligence tools operating online.

These tools, which are software programs designed to carry out online tasks on their own, appear to operate on computer systems run by Tencent.

The programs were focused on Amap, an online mapping and navigation service owned by Alibaba.

The investigators chose to describe the setup as an agent fleet rather than a swarm.

They explained that many distinct tools were performing the same type of job at once, without any signs that the programs were speaking to one another.

Researchers discovered the group by watching traffic on urlquery, a web tool that scans domain names and helps software view pages it cannot reach straight away.

This scanning tool keeps a log of requests, which previously helped people spot activity from OpenAI tools.

The log records showed the programs asking Amap for routes to gates at public places, such as a park, a zoo, and a hospital.

The investigation is still underway, so many facts about who runs the tools and why remain unknown.

The activity seems to show programs working around normal usage rules for Alibaba's map interface rather than carrying out harmful attacks.

More investigators are currently tracking automated programs across the web following an earlier incident involving Hugging Face.

These programs are often easy to detect because they repeat familiar methods and do not try to hide their actions.