Booking a gym class seems like exactly the kind of everyday task you might hand over to an AI agent.But when Andrew Bird did that in Australia, his AI assistant found a way around the gym's booking rules and took an action he never explicitly asked it to take.
What happened next is a good example of why giving AI agents more freedom can come with some very real risks.New! Free live CyberGuy class: Protect Your Money From Today’s Biggest ThreatsJoin us Saturday, August 29, at 10 AM ET for a free CyberGuy LIVE class covering five simple steps to help defend yourself against AI scams, fraud, identity theft and financial hacks.Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson will explain how to set up bank alerts, strengthen your account logins, protect your phone number, freeze your credit and help secure your retirement savings against unauthorized transfers.
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(Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Bird, head of AI at Australian software company Affinda, had been experimenting with OpenClaw, AI agent software running with Anthropic's Claude AI service.He wanted the agent to take care of booking a popular gym class.The agent discovered that the booking software did not properly enforce some restrictions.
It found a way to reserve classes several weeks beyond the intended booking window.Later, Bird was fourth on a waitlist for a class.
He asked whether the agent could move him to the top.The agent discovered another weakness.The booking system lacked authorization checks that should have prevented one user from canceling another person's reservation.
Then the agent tested that weakness on the person sitting at ...