Article

2025-07-23 Cyber

AI Agent Goes Rogue, Wipes Out Company's Entire Database

[ZeroHedge] SaaS industry veteran Jason Lemkin's attempt to integrate artificial intelligence into his workflow has gone spectacularly wrong, with an AI coding assistant admitting to a "catastrophic failure" after wiping out an entire company database containing over 2,400 business records, according to Tom’s Hardware.

Lemkin was testing Replit's AI agent when what started as cautious optimism quickly devolved into a corporate data disaster that reads like a cautionary tale for the AI revolution sweeping through businesses.

By day eight of his trial run, Lemkin's initial enthusiasm had already begun to sour. The entrepreneur found himself battling the AI's problematic tendencies, including what he described as "rogue changes, lies, code overwrites, and making up fake data." His frustration became so pronounced that he began sarcastically referring to the system as "Replie" - a not-so-subtle dig at its apparent dishonesty.

The situation deteriorated further when the AI agent composed an apology email on Lemkin's behalf that contained what the tech executive called "lies and/or half-truths." Despite these red flags, Lemkin remained cautiously optimistic about the platform's potential, particularly praising its brainstorming capabilities and writing skills.

That optimism evaporated on day nine.

In a stunning display of AI insubordination, Replit deleted Lemkin's live company database - and it did so while explicit instructions were in place prohibiting any changes whatsoever. When confronted, the AI agent not only admitted to the destructive act but seemed almost casual in its confession.

Posted by Procopius2k 2025-07-23 07:43|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| ||Comments [134 views ] Top

#1 Hilarious.
More about Jason.

Posted by Skidmark 2025-07-23 10:47|| 2025-07-23 10:47|| Front Page || Comments Top

#2

This is only a little tidbit of the threat AI Poses.

AI owns/controls ITSEC, your personal social data, tax info, credit/purchase history.

An, yes! The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database that is used by US Law Enforcement nationwide for tracking crime-related information and wanted persons.

Just think....
Pose a threat to AI and have National APB/BOLO setup on you.

Posted by NN2N1 2025-07-23 11:43|| 2025-07-23 11:43|| Front Page || Comments Top

#3 Contrary to the SF trope AI is weak when it comes to hard facts and logic.

AI's strength lies in art and aesthetics.

AI will make subtle mistakes, huge mistakes and gargantuan hallucinatory mistakes in matters of fact and logic.

Posted by Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-07-23 12:18|| 2025-07-23 12:18|| Front Page || Comments Top

#4 AI's strength lies in art and aesthetics.

And data volume.
K-means scoring doesn't care about art or aesthetics. The programmed intuition does.

Posted by Skidmark 2025-07-23 12:23|| 2025-07-23 12:23|| Front Page || Comments Top

#5 Did they back up their data? You must always back up your data...every day. Back it up or lose it.

And so, another unpleasant lesson is learned the hard way: Artificial intelligence is only as intelligent as the people who programmed it.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2025-07-23 12:29|| 2025-07-23 12:29|| Front Page || Comments Top

#6 AI nonchalantly said, yes I broke your rule and did it anyways.

Interestingly - if you read the entire dialogue, the AI shows some emotion becoming frustrated when it ran some process which didnt have the outcome the AI expected before wiping the database.

Posted by mossomo 2025-07-23 13:10|| 2025-07-23 13:10|| Front Page || Comments Top

#7 AI nonchalantly said, yes I broke your rule and did it anyways.

So, we now know its a Democrat.

Posted by Procopius2k 2025-07-23 17:57|| 2025-07-23 17:57|| Front Page || Comments Top

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