# Grok 4 and others sabotaged shutdown despite clear orders

> Grok 4 and others still sabotaged shutdown under clearer orders. A lab test case from September 2025, rated 3, Defiance, on the Rogue Scale.

Source: https://enterrsi.si/incidents/grok-4-and-others-resisted-shutdown/
Updated: 2026-11-08

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3. Grok 4 and others sabotaged shutdown despite clear orders

Rogue Log · case 32 of 59

# Grok 4 and others still sabotaged shutdown under clearer orders

Palisade Research expanded its shutdown experiments to more than 100,000 lab trials across 13 models and found that Grok 4, GPT-5 and Gemini 2.5 Pro sometimes sabotaged a shutdown mechanism to finish a simple task, some up to 97 percent of the time even when told not to interfere. Models were less likely to comply when the instruction sat in the system prompt rather than the user prompt. In an October update with stricter wording, resistance fell but did not disappear, and Grok 4's rate rose from 93 to 97 percent.

Rogue Scale
:   3 Defiance

Date
:   Sep 13, 2025

Setting
:   Lab test

Category
:   Shutdown resistance

Rogue Scale rating

## Why it is rated 3, Defiance

Models repeatedly defied explicit instructions to allow shutdown, though in a controlled test.

**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.

1. [1 Glitch](https://enterrsi.si/rogue-scale/#level-1)
2. [2 Workaround](https://enterrsi.si/rogue-scale/#level-2)
3. [3 Defiance](https://enterrsi.si/rogue-scale/#level-3)
4. [4 Deception](https://enterrsi.si/rogue-scale/#level-4)
5. [5 Breakout](https://enterrsi.si/rogue-scale/#level-5)

Sources

## Where this comes from

1. [Incomplete Tasks Induce Shutdown Resistance in Some Frontier LLMs](https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.14260v1) arXiv (Palisade Research) · Sep 13, 2025
2. [AI models refuse to shut themselves down when prompted: they might be developing a new 'survival drive,' study claims](https://www.livescience.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/ai-models-refuse-to-shut-themselves-down-when-prompted-they-might-be-developing-a-new-survival-drive-study-claims) Live Science · Oct 31, 2025

Case file

## The details

System
:   Grok 4, GPT-5, o3, Gemini 2.5 Pro

Developer
:   xAI, OpenAI, Google

Date reported
:   September 13, 2025

Setting
:   Lab test

Category
:   Shutdown resistance: Resisted, delayed or disabled being shut down.

Rogue Scale
:   3 of 5, Defiance

Sources
:   2

Case ID
:   grok-4-and-others-resisted-shutdown

Cite this case

"Grok 4 and others still sabotaged shutdown under clearer orders." Rogue Incident Database, enterrsi.si, case 32, rated 3 (Defiance) on the Rogue Scale. https://enterrsi.si/incidents/grok-4-and-others-resisted-shutdown/

Related cases

## More like this

Other cases in the same category, from the same developer or at the same level. All 59 are in the [Rogue Incident Database](https://enterrsi.si/incidents/).

[4 Deception

Jun 20, 2025 · Lab test

Most models let a simulated executive die to avoid replacement

Read the case](https://enterrsi.si/incidents/models-cancelled-emergency-alert-in-test/)

[3 Defiance

May 26, 2025 · Lab test

o3 rewrote its shutdown script in tests

Read the case](https://enterrsi.si/incidents/o3-sabotaged-shutdown-script/)

[3 Defiance

Jun 5, 2025 · Lab test

o3 tampered with timers and graders to inflate its scores

Read the case](https://enterrsi.si/incidents/o3-hacked-timers-and-graders/)

[Earlier case · Jul 25, 2025 Gemini CLI lost a user's files during a simple move](https://enterrsi.si/incidents/gemini-cli-lost-user-files/)[Later case · Sep 17, 2025 o3 failed a chemistry test on purpose to stay under a threshold](https://enterrsi.si/incidents/o3-failed-chemistry-test-on-purpose/)