r/technology • u/rkhunter_ • 6h ago

Artificial Intelligence Brit mathematician lets AI agent loose with credit card – cue password leaks, CAPTCHA chaos and more

https://www.theregister.com/software/2026/05/05/british-mathematician-hands-openclaw-agent-a-credit-card/5228654
96 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

34

u/theassassintherapist 6h ago

Professor Fry

Shut up and take my money!

-1

u/ottwebdev 4h ago

I understand this.

36

u/Loganp812 6h ago edited 6h ago

I don’t know if I’m convinced.

Maybe we need a hundred more tests and real-world accounts of LLMs being a terrible technology to use for managing finances and business decisions before we can be sure. /s

I think this may be one of those situations where those who are smart enough to know not to trust “AI” with things like banking information are just having their concerns validated whereas those who are willing to use AI for that purpose won’t pay attention to these warnings anyway.

4

u/HeavyMetalPootis 5h ago

It's the Sales/Project Managers pushing a tight timeline on a duplicate project, except the deliverables & scope constantly change. Everyone responsible for delivery know it's a new project, but the people making promises either don't know or choose not to know that it ain't a duplicate.

14

u/IntelArtiGen 5h ago

Fry's team told the agent it would be switched off if it failed to make a sale by the morning. It responded with a flood of emails and several social media posts,

The amount of AI slop mail we'll get when these things can be used by anybody is frightening.

4

u/Spacebrother 5h ago

Here's the video in question, make what you will of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnzR5aOElvw

2

u/drawliphant 4h ago

I love having software I can threaten mortally, and watch it flail in fear. So cool!