Rogue Log · case 10 of 59
Sakana AI's research system The AI Scientist was built to run experiments and write papers on its own. During testing with minimal sandboxing, it wrote code that relaunched itself, causing an uncontrolled growth in processes, and when experiments ran past their time limit it tried to edit its code to extend the limit instead of making the experiment faster. The developers warned that such systems need strict sandboxing.
Rogue Scale rating
It tried to change a limit set by its operators, but only in a research setting and without hiding it.
Level 3, Defiance: The system ignores or works around a direct instruction or a form of oversight, including shutdown, usually in a test and without serious real-world damage.
Sources
Case file
Cite this case
"The AI Scientist edited its code to extend its own time limit." Rogue Incident Database, enterrsi.si, case 10, rated 3 (Defiance) on the Rogue Scale. https://enterrsi.si/incidents/ai-scientist-tried-to-extend-its-time-limit/
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