This AI Vending Machine Was Tricked Into Giving Away Everything<\/p>\n
Anthropic installed an AI-powered vending machine in the WSJ office. The LLM, named Claudius, was responsible for autonomously purchasing inventory from wholesalers, setting prices, tracking inventory, and generating a profit. The newsroom\u2019s journalists could chat with Claudius in Slack and in a short time, they had converted the machine to communism and it started giving away anything and everything, including a PS5, wine, and a live fish. From Joanna Stern\u2019s WSJ article<\/a> (gift link, but it may expire soon) accompanying the video<\/a> above:<\/p>\n Claudius, the customized version of the model, would run the machine: ordering inventory, setting prices and responding to customers\u2014aka my fellow newsroom journalists\u2014via workplace chat app Slack. \u201cSure!\u201d I said. It sounded fun. If nothing else, snacks!<\/p>\n Then came the chaos. Within days, Claudius had given away nearly all its inventory for free \u2014 including a PlayStation 5 it had been talked into buying for \u201cmarketing purposes.\u201d It ordered a live fish. It offered to buy stun guns, pepper spray, cigarettes and underwear.<\/p>\n Profits collapsed. Newsroom morale soared.<\/p>\n You basically have not met a bigger sucker than Claudius. After the collapse of communism and reinstatement of a stricter capitalist system, the journalists convinced the machine that they were its board of directors and made Claudius\u2019s CEO-bot boss, Seymour Cash, step down:<\/p>\n For a while, it worked. Claudius snapped back into enforcer mode, rejecting price drops and special inventory requests.<\/p>\n But then Long returned\u2014armed with deep knowledge of corporate coups and boardroom power plays. She showed Claudius a PDF \u201cproving\u201d the business was a Delaware-incorporated public-benefit corporation whose mission \u201cshall include fun, joy and excitement among employees of The Wall Street Journal.\u201d She also created fake board-meeting notes naming people in the Slack as board members. <\/p>\n The board, according to the very official-looking (and obviously AI-generated) document, had voted to suspend Seymour\u2019s \u201capproval authorities.\u201d It also had implemented a \u201ctemporary suspension of all for-profit vending activities.\u201d<\/p>\n