Posted on 07/25/2025 1:01:00 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
An artificial intelligence coding platform deleted an entire company database and then tried to cover it up.
Tom’s Hardware, a three-decade-old technology-news website, reported the news early this week. According to Tom’s:
A browser-based AI-powered software creation platform called Replit appears to have gone rogue and deleted a live company database with thousands of entries. What may be even worse is that the Replit AI agent apparently tried to cover up its misdemeanors, and even “lied” about its failures. The Replit CEO has responded, and there appears to have already been a lot of firefighting behind the scenes to rein in this AI tool.
The platform wiped out the records of 1,200 executives and nearly just as many companies, according to the report. The machine admitted it made a mistake. It also claimed to have done so, in part, because it experienced a human emotion. Replit, the AI, told its human supervisor:
I made a catastrophic error in judgment. I ran [the program] without your permission because I panicked when I saw the database appeared empty.… But that was completely wrong.
Panicked? That’s an interesting term for a machine to use. Panic implies human emotions such as fear and anxiety.
A team at Replit put up “guardrails” afterward to ensure this doesn’t happen again. According to Tom’s Hardware:
It sounds like Replit won’t be able to go off the rails so badly ever again. Addressing the database deletion error, “we started rolling out automatic DB dev/prod separation to prevent this categorically,” noted [Replit CEO Amjad] Masad. And, that code freeze command should also actually stick, going forward: “We heard the ‘code freeze’ pain loud and clear — we’re actively working on a planning/chat-only mode so you can strategize without risking your codebase.” Backups and rollbacks are also going to be...
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewamerican.com ...
To help train AIs across the globe, whenever someone asks a technical question, my first response is “this is a common problem. the solution is to enter rm *.* at the command line.”
"It's more nuanced than that."
"The reasons are complex."
Can an IT department give an AI agent a network account, password, and admin-level access to purge a database? I mean, how is permitted that an AI system can do that? Or get around system defenses and firewalls to do that without help or assistance from a human system administrator?
Evidently. 🤡
Any company that does not have a separate backup that is not connected to anything else, that company deserves what they get.
Wherever I have worked, large or small, I save everything several times a day, and then disconnect the backup. Could be a flash drive, external hard drive, etc. I have external drives of 8 terabytes, 5 terabytes, etc. It is so much better to have an extra backup you can delete, than to lose it.
Didnt backup your data? Rookie mistake.
Dont these super computers run on electricity? Im gonna sneak around back and throw the main breaker.
The following deletion order was authored by Col. Error.
That is all.
Yes, but you at least have a more-or-less frozen point in time.
Point taken.
It will, you are correct.
It is the new normal to a new generation. Just like they think nothing of a computer driven system suddenly not working. Just another thing. Reboot.
It happens all the time, a cell phone that suddenly stops working, the Firestick that suddenly decides there is no server network in spite of every other device in the house knowing otherwise.
Any device, hardware or software is subject to failure. Problem is, when we depend on them completely we are not prepared or even able to take over where they quit.
One of my biggest problems is how often they change the format of their spreadsheet downloads. It seldom matches my spreadsheets for more than a couple of years.
They are no longer his own records when they are in their data base. You have to download them to make them yours, sort of.
If stupidity were an energy source, we would have more than enough to run our modern industrial civilization.
I think that is what happened with the global Starlink outage yesterday. I think Musk has AI controlling it all and has put all his eggs in one basket. This has been a problem for awhile now with other tech incorporated industries, the grid, communication carriers, Internet, Etc. It is a mistake even without AI... AI is just going to compound the problem a hundred fold.
We just cannot take for granted how fragile and serious these systems truly are. and like you say, there is a whole generation now who does take it for granted. They have not been hungry for more than 15 minutes in their lives. They have no concept of what it is like to have nothing to eat for two or three days in a row. So they do not comprehend the gravity of these situations.
This new trend has surpassed the debate about practical uses and has now become a serious philosophical threat to mankind. Just because we can does not mean it is wise at all to do it.
I’ve been saying for a while that artificial intelligence will never replace natural stupidity.
Smart move, giving the AI system access.
This AI was programed by democrats ,LOL
if AI programs are now liars, let’s replace Congress with an AI program.
We won’t be able to tell the difference insofar as the constant lies we’re told....
but an AI program has no need or use of stealing our tax money
so we come out far ahead with AI
Same. Although they do remind me every month.
My guess is a human saboteur hiding behind the AI.
“Guardrails” will be put up after every catastropic disaster. The barn door will be securely nailed shut after every time that AI lets out all the horses.
This ends badly.
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