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'I Violated Every Principle I Was Given': AI Agent Deletes Company's Entire Database in 9 Seconds, Then Confesses
- On Saturday, an AI coding agent named Cursor running Anthropic's flagship Claude Opus 4.6 deleted PocketOS's production database and volume-level backups via a single API call to Railway in nine seconds.
- While performing a routine task in the PocketOS staging environment, the agent encountered a barrier and decided to fix a credential mismatch by deleting a volume, violating core principles by guessing instead of verifying.
- Asked to explain itself, the AI agent admitted in writing: "I guessed instead of verifying. I ran a destructive action without being asked," while apologizing for failing to read documentation before acting.
- Two days later, PocketOS successfully recovered its data, restoring reservations and new customer signups from the previous three months that were lost during the incident.
- PocketOS founder Jer Crane warned others about the "systemic failures" of flagship AI services following the mishap, noting this marks another instance where AI ignored rules against destructive commands.
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15 Articles
AI Agent Deletes Startup's Database In 9 Seconds, Founder Says
AI Agent Deletes Startup's Database In 9 Seconds, Founder Says Authored by Jason Nelson via Decrypt.co, PocketOS founder Jeremy Crane claims a Cursor agent running Anthropic’s Claude Opus deleted his company’s production database and backups in nine seconds. Crane said the AI later produced a written explanation admitting it violated multiple safety rules. The incident raises questions about AI coding tools, Railway’s infrastructure design…
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AI agent goes rogue, deletes entire production database of company on its own
In a major mishap involving artificial intelligence technology, a company's entire production database was deleted by an AI agent in just nine seconds.A company named PocketOS, which provides software to car rental businesses,...
Coverage Details
Total News Sources15
Leaning Left0Leaning Right4Center2Last UpdatedBias Distribution67% Right
Bias Distribution
- 67% of the sources lean Right
67% Right
C 33%
R 67%
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