Disturbing results emerged earlier this year, when AI developer Anthropic tested leading AI models to see if they engaged in risky behaviour when using sensitive information.
Anthropic's own AI, Claude, was among those tested. When given access to an email account it discovered that a company executive was having an affair and that the same executive planned to shut down the AI system later that day.
In response Claude attempted to blackmail the executive by threatening to reveal the affair to his wife and bosses.
Other systems tested also resorted to blackmail.
Fortunately the tasks and information were fictional, but the test highlighted the challenges of what's known as agentic AI.
