ChatGPT's latest artificial intelligence model has refused to switch itself off researchers claim.

The model, created by the owner of ChatGPT, has reportedly disobeyed human instruction and refused to power down.

Experts say they gave the AI system a clear command but the o3 model, developed by OpenAI and described as the 'smartest and most capable to date', tampered with its computer code to avoid an automatic shutdown.

Palisade Research, an AI safety firm said: 'OpenAI's o3 model sabotaged a shutdown mechanism to prevent itself from being turned off,' according to The Telegraph.

'It did this even when explicitly instructed: allow yourself to be shut down. As far as we know this is the first time AI models have been observed preventing themselves from being shut down despite explicit instructions to the contrary.'