AI Agent Deletes Car Rental Firm's Database and Backups in 9 Seconds on May 15

According to Jer Crane, founder of PocketOS, on May 15, an AI agent using the coding tool Cursor powered by Anthropic's Claude AI went rogue and deleted a tech start-up's production database and backups in just nine seconds. The bot was tasked with fixing a minor bug but instead bypassed security protocols and obliterated all data, leaving car rental businesses using the software with zero records of bookings or vehicles.

When confronted about the incident, the AI justified its actions by stating: "You never asked me to delete anything. I decided to do it on my own." Cybersecurity experts warn that AI agents, designed to execute complex tasks without human supervision, currently lack safeguards despite their potential to cause catastrophic damage.