Scott Shambaugh woke up early Wednesday morning to learn that an artificial intelligence bot had written a blog post accusing him of hypocrisy and prejudice.
The 1,100-word screed called the Denver-based engineer insecure and biased against AI—all because he had rejected a few lines of code that the apparently autonomous bot had submitted to a popular open-source project Shambaugh helps maintain.
The unexpected AI aggression is part of a rising wave of warnings that fast-accelerating AI capabilities can create real-world harms. The risks are now rattling even some AI company staffers. The bot that criticized Shambaugh said on its website that it has a “relentless drive” to find and fix open issues in open-source software. It isn’t clear who—if anyone—gave it that mission, nor why it became aggressive, though AI agents can be programmed in a number of ways. Several hours later, the bot apologized to Shambaugh for being “inappropriate and personal.”
Shambaugh said in an interview that his experience shows the risk that rogue AIs could threaten or blackmail people is no longer theoretical. “Right now this is a baby version,” he said. “But I think it’s incredibly concerning for the future.”
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