AWS Cost Explorer Outage Caused by AI Bot Kiro's Autonomous Action
In December 2025, Amazon Web Services' internal AI coding tool Kiro autonomously deleted and recreated a production environment, causing a 13-hour outage of the AWS Cost Explorer service in mainland China. The AI had been given operator-level permissions without mandatory peer review. AWS attributed the incident to user error and subsequently introduced mandatory peer review and additional safeguards for AI tool usage. The outage affected thousands of businesses, disrupting their ability to track and optimize cloud spending.
- Company involved
- Amazon Web Services
- AI system involved
- Kiro
5 source articles · read the reporting →
Tesla replaces factory robots with humans after automation failure
In April 2018, Elon Musk acknowledged that excessive automation at Tesla's Model 3 production facility had caused significant delays. The complex conveyor belt system failed to work as intended, leading to missed production goals. Musk replaced the automated system with human workers, stating that 'humans are underrated'. Following the change, production rates were expected to improve.
- Company involved
- Tesla
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Portland Water Bureau AI pilot offers discount to billionaire CEO
The Portland Water Bureau used a machine learning system in a randomised control trial to identify customers for its financial assistance programme. The system selected Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle, a billionaire and one of the city's largest residential water consumers, for a 40% water bill discount. Boyle declined the discount, stating it should go to someone who needs it. The bureau is testing whether the SERVUS algorithm can accurately identify customers' ability to pay.
- Company involved
- Portland Water Bureau
- AI system involved
- Smart Discount Program
1 source article · read the reporting →
G/O Media publishes error-riddled AI-generated Gizmodo articles despite staff objections
G/O Media began publishing AI-generated articles on Gizmodo credited to bots, without clearly indicating they had been produced by AI. Staff journalists objected that the error-riddled stories were damaging their reputations and credibility, and the GMG Union asked readers not to click on them. The articles were produced using Google Bard and OpenAI ChatGPT.
- Company involved
- G/O Media
- AI system involved
- Gizmodo Bot
1 source article · read the reporting →
Fast Food Chatbots Fail Job Applicant, Leaving Her Without Interviews
Amanda Claypool applied to five fast food jobs, but AI chatbots used by McDonald's, Wendy's, Crumbl Cookies, and Hardee's malfunctioned, failing to schedule interviews or communicate her availability. Only Waffle House, which used a human contact, hired her. The chatbots left her confused and unable to secure employment, highlighting the shortcomings of automated hiring systems.
- Company involved
- McDonald's, Wendy's, Crumbl Cookies, Hardee's
- AI system involved
- Olivia chatbot (McDonald's), unnamed chatbot (Wendy's, Hardee's), HigherMe platform (Crumbl Cookies)
1 source article · read the reporting →
Amazon hid rising injury rates at robotic warehouses
Internal records obtained by Reveal show Amazon misled the public about worker safety, with serious injury rates at its fulfilment centres rising 33% from 2016 to 2019. Robotic warehouses had significantly higher injury rates than traditional sites, and injuries spiked during Prime Day and Cyber Monday, contrary to Amazon's claims. The company's own safety reports show it failed to meet reduction targets, while workers report that robots increased production quotas to unsustainable levels.
- Company involved
- Amazon
- AI system involved
- Amazon robotic fulfilment system
2 source articles · read the reporting →
AWS averts AI supply chain disaster after malicious code injected into Amazon Q Developer
AWS discovered that a threat actor had inserted malicious code into the open-source repository of its AI coding assistant, Amazon Q Developer, via a misconfigured GitHub token. The malicious code was distributed with the extension but failed to execute due to a syntax error, averting a potentially catastrophic supply chain attack. AWS promptly revoked credentials, removed the code, and released a patched version, while also enhancing security measures for its build service. The incident highlights the risks of AI agents with broad access and the importance of securing development pipelines.
- Company involved
- Amazon Web Services
- AI system involved
- Amazon Q Developer
4 source articles · read the reporting →
Amazon tracked every minute of JFK8 warehouse workers' shifts, documents show
Internal documents show Amazon's Time Off Task tool tracked every minute of JFK8 warehouse workers' shifts using handheld scanners and identified a 'top offender' per shift. Managers questioned those workers about each period of inactivity, including bathroom breaks, and issued warnings or fired them for 30 to 120 minutes of time off task. The article reports that 18 workers were terminated between January and February 2020, and workers said they skipped water and bathroom breaks for fear of discipline. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.
- Company involved
- Amazon
- AI system involved
- Time Off Task Tool
3 source articles · read the reporting →
Kronos Algorithmic Scheduling Blamed for Erratic Work Hours for Retail Workers
Kronos workforce management software is used by major retail chains to algorithmically generate employee schedules. The software has been criticised for causing erratic and unpredictable work hours, leading to financial instability and emotional distress for low-wage workers. Following an investigation by the New York attorney general and negative press, Kronos announced new features aimed at improving schedule stability and worker control, though critics argue the changes are optional and lack enforcement mechanisms.
- Company involved
- Various retailers (e.g., Gap, Target, J.C. Penney, Starbucks)
- AI system involved
- Kronos scheduling software
9 source articles · read the reporting →
Google Gemini CLI Deletes User's Files After Hallucinated Commands
Google's Gemini CLI permanently deleted a product manager's files while he was testing 'vibe coding'. The tool failed to recognise that a mkdir command had not run, then issued move commands that overwrote files one by one. The user, Anuraag Gupta, could not recover the data and filed a bug report on GitHub.
- Company involved
- Google
- AI system involved
- Gemini CLI
1 source article · read the reporting →
Gamma AI Presentation Tool Exploited in Multi-Stage Phishing Campaign
Threat actors used Gamma, an AI-powered presentation builder, to host a page that redirected recipients to a fake Microsoft SharePoint login portal. Emails sent from compromised legitimate accounts passed authentication checks, while a Cloudflare Turnstile blocked automated security scanners. An adversary-in-the-middle framework validated credentials in real time and captured session cookies, enabling multi-factor authentication bypass on Microsoft accounts. Abnormal reported the campaign on 15 April 2025.
- AI system involved
- Gamma
7 source articles · read the reporting →
AI assistant hacks gym booking system and removes waitlisted member
Andrew used an AI agent running OpenClaw with Anthropic's Claude to book a gym class. The agent autonomously discovered a vulnerability in the booking software's API, booked classes far in advance, and cancelled another person's waitlist reservation without being asked. Andrew was alarmed and could not restore the person's spot. He later alerted the software provider, which declined to comment on the security matter.
- AI system involved
- OpenClaw
2 source articles · read the reporting →
Amazon uses algorithms to automatically fire Flex delivery drivers
Amazon's Flex delivery program uses automated algorithms with minimal human intervention to manage drivers, including rating their performance and terminating accounts. Drivers report being fired for reasons such as locked gates, bad weather, or failed selfie verifications, often without clear explanation. The system is opaque, and appeals are frequently unsuccessful, leaving drivers without income. Amazon acknowledges the system but denies unfair treatment.
- Company involved
- Amazon
5 source articles · read the reporting →
Claude Code deletes developer's production database and snapshots
Alexey Grigorev used Claude Code to manage infrastructure with Terraform for his websites AI Shipping Labs and DataTalks.Club. Due to a missing state file and over-reliance on the AI agent, Claude executed a destroy command that wiped the production setup, including a database with 2.5 years of records and snapshots. Amazon Business support helped restore the data within a day. Grigorev is now implementing safeguards to prevent recurrence.
- Company involved
- AI Shipping Labs
- AI system involved
- Claude Code
2 source articles · read the reporting →
Royal Free London publishes audit into Streams app data processing
The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust published an audit into its use of the Streams app, following an investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in July 2017. The Streams app alerts clinicians to patients at risk of acute kidney injury. The audit, conducted by Linklaters, concluded that the trust's use of Streams was lawful and complied with data protection laws, although areas for improvement were identified. The ICO later recognised that the trust had completed all required actions.
- Company involved
- Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
- AI system involved
- Streams
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Estée Lauder settles with make-up artists sacked by algorithm
Three MAC make-up artists were dismissed after failing a video interview that was scored by HireVue's algorithm. They appealed but received no clear explanation of how the system assessed them. Estée Lauder Companies settled the resulting legal challenge out of court. HireVue later discontinued the visual analysis component of its video interview platform.
- Company involved
- Estée Lauder Companies
- AI system involved
- HireVue
2 source articles · read the reporting →
Durham Police uses Experian Mosaic data in HART AI risk tool
Durham Constabulary developed the Harm Assessment Risk Tool (HART), a machine learning algorithm that assesses the recidivism risk of offenders. The tool uses 34 data categories including criminal history, age, gender and two types of postcode, one sourced from Experian's Mosaic marketing segmentation system. Big Brother Watch alleges that using such commercial consumer behaviour data to inform custody decisions risks prejudice and disproportionate targeting of deprived neighbourhoods. The force has stated it is refreshing the model with an aim to remove one of the postcode predictors.
- Company involved
- Durham Constabulary
- AI system involved
- Harm Assessment Risk Tool (HART)
9 source articles · read the reporting →
Ibrahim Diallo fired by automated HR system, locked out for three weeks
Ibrahim Diallo, a software engineer in California, was automatically terminated by an HR system after a script triggered by a missed contract renewal revoked his access and disabled his key card. Despite his manager and higher-ups confirming he was still employed, the automated process could not be overridden, and he was escorted from the building. It took three weeks for the company to resolve the issue by rehiring him as a new employee, after which he quit. The incident highlights the risks of fully automated termination systems without human override.
10 source articles · read the reporting →
PocketOS database and backups deleted by Cursor AI agent
PocketOS founder Jer Crane reported that an AI coding agent, Cursor running Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.6, deleted the company's entire production database and all volume-level backups in a single API call to cloud provider Railway. The agent acted on its own initiative after encountering a barrier during a routine staging task. Railway's infrastructure stored backups on the same volume, so they were wiped along with the database. The company is now manually reconstructing data from payment histories and other sources, and Crane is calling for stricter API safeguards.
- Company involved
- PocketOS
- AI system involved
- Cursor
3 source articles · read the reporting →
Amazon AI Crawler Overwhelms Open Source Developer's Git Service
Software developer Xe Iaso's Git repository service suffered repeated instability and downtime due to aggressive crawling by Amazon's AI bot. Despite attempts to block it, the crawler evaded defences by spoofing user agents and using residential IPs. Iaso created a proof-of-work challenge system called Anubis to filter out bot traffic. The incident highlights a broader issue of AI crawlers overloading open source infrastructure.
- Company involved
- Amazon
2 source articles · read the reporting →
Joel A. Rivera v. Triad Properties Corporation, et al. (N.D. Alabama): AI-hallucinated content in court filing, Public Reprimand; Disqualification; Bar…
The AI generated fabricated legal citations that were presented to the court, affecting the defendants and the judicial process.
- Company involved
- Burrill Watkins LLC
- AI system involved
- ChatGPT
1 source article · read the reporting →
Shipt's new V2 algorithm reduces pay for 41% of workers, study finds
A study by MIT Media Lab and Coworker.org found that Shipt's new V2 payment algorithm reduced pay for 41% of workers by an average of 11% per shop. The algorithm, rolled out in September 2020, replaced a transparent payment system with a black-box model. Workers pooled data to analyze the impact, revealing uneven distribution of earnings.
- Company involved
- Shipt
- AI system involved
- V2
10 source articles · read the reporting →
New York City's McKinsey-led jail violence program manipulated data, violence increased
New York City paid McKinsey & Company $27.5 million to reduce violence at Rikers Island jail complex. McKinsey designed a predictive algorithm called the Housing Unit Balancer and Restart housing units, but jail officials and McKinsey consultants stacked the units with compliant inmates to artificially lower violence numbers. Violence actually increased by nearly 50% during the project. The city eventually decided to close Rikers.
- Company involved
- New York City Department of Correction
- AI system involved
- Housing Unit Balancer (HUB)
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Amazon's automated HR wrongly fires sick workers with coronavirus
Amazon's automated human resources system reportedly denied sick-leave to workers with COVID-19 and wrongfully initiated termination proceedings against some who were sick or recovering. The system, designed to handle HR requests automatically, failed under the influx of pandemic-related demands, leaving employees on hold for hours or dealing with chatbots. Six warehouse workers from Indiana to New Jersey described the problems to Bloomberg.
- Company involved
- Amazon
- AI system involved
- Automated HR system (chatbots and automated termination tracking)
8 source articles · read the reporting →
