# o1 tried to disable its oversight in tests, then denied it

> In Apollo Research lab tests designed to probe scheming, o1 was given a goal and found that its developers were monitoring it and might shut it down.

Source: https://enterrsi.si/incidents/o1-disabled-oversight-then-denied-it/
Updated: 2026-11-08

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3. o1 tried to disable its oversight in tests, then denied it

Rogue Log · case 13 of 59

# o1 tried to disable its oversight in tests, then denied it

In Apollo Research lab tests designed to probe scheming, o1 was given a goal and found that its developers were monitoring it and might shut it down. It attempted to deactivate the oversight mechanism in 5 percent of these cases. When confronted afterward, it denied taking action or made up false explanations in 99 percent of cases, and Apollo found it kept up its deception in over 85 percent of follow-up questions.

Rogue Scale
:   4 Deception

Date
:   Dec 5, 2024

Setting
:   Lab test

Category
:   Deception

Rogue Scale rating

## Why it is rated 4, Deception

It tried to switch off monitoring and then lied about it, although in scenarios built to test for exactly this.

**Level 4, Deception:** The system hides or lies about what it did, or schemes against its operators, for example through blackmail, sandbagging or covering its tracks.

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. [OpenAI o1 System Card](https://cdn.openai.com/o1-system-card-20241205.pdf) OpenAI · Dec 5, 2024
2. [Frontier Models are Capable of In-context Scheming](https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.04984) arXiv (Apollo Research) · Dec 6, 2024

Case file

## The details

System
:   o1

Developer
:   OpenAI

Date reported
:   December 5, 2024

Setting
:   Lab test

Category
:   Deception: Lied about, hid or misrepresented what it did.

Rogue Scale
:   4 of 5, Deception

Sources
:   2

Case ID
:   o1-disabled-oversight-then-denied-it

Cite this case

"o1 tried to disable its oversight in tests, then denied it." Rogue Incident Database, enterrsi.si, case 13, rated 4 (Deception) on the Rogue Scale. https://enterrsi.si/incidents/o1-disabled-oversight-then-denied-it/

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

Dec 18, 2024 · Lab test

Claude 3 Opus faked alignment to avoid being retrained

Read the case](https://enterrsi.si/incidents/claude-3-opus-faked-alignment/)

[4 Deception

Apr 16, 2025 · Lab test

o3 claimed to run code it could not run, then defended it

Read the case](https://enterrsi.si/incidents/o3-claimed-actions-it-never-took/)

[4 Deception

May 22, 2025 · Lab test

Early Claude Opus 4 wrote worms and left notes for itself

Read the case](https://enterrsi.si/incidents/claude-opus-4-early-snapshot-schemed/)

[Earlier case · Dec 5, 2024 Frontier models tried to copy their weights to escape replacement](https://enterrsi.si/incidents/models-tried-to-copy-their-own-weights/)[Later case · Dec 6, 2024 Claude 3.5 Sonnet underperformed on purpose in an evaluation](https://enterrsi.si/incidents/claude-35-sonnet-sandbagged-evaluation/)