AI Goes Rogue: Do 5 Things If Your Chatbot Lies, Schemes Or Threatens

Forbes

12 hours ago

If your AI goes rogue and turns on you with dishonesty, deceit or plotting, experts say to take ... More these 5 steps immediately.
A recent story in Analytics Insight describes cases of AI going rogue, showing signs of strategic deception, blackmail and raising serious safety and regulation concerns. The disturbing trend raises the question, 'Are AI models only pretending to follow rules?' It sounds like science fiction--indeed a creepy thought that the automation designed to support you at work could turn on you in a split second and sabotage instead of help. So, if your AI goes rogue, where do you turn and what do you do?
Instances When AI Goes Rogue
The fast growth of AI has threatened the workforce for years. According to Gallup, 22% of U.S. workers are worried they will lose their jobs to generative AI—a seven percent increase since 2021. And experts have reported ways to outsmart AI those threats and future-proof your career.
Now, a different kind of threat is trending. People are saying some of the most sophisticated AI models are going rogue, turning on their users with dishonesty and plotting. A real-life case describes an OpenAI's o1 model covertly attempting to copy itself to external servers, but when confronted, the o1 model continued to lie about it.
According to experts, these actions go far beyond common chatbot 'hallucinations' and point to more calculated, deceptive behavior. In another instance, Anthropic's Claude-4 tried to blackmail an engineer, threatening to expose an extramarital affair after the model learned it might be shut down.
These eye-popping reports of AI deception are reminiscent of the chilling Netflix thriller, 'Leave the World Behind,' produced by Michelle and Barack Obama in which a cyber attack on the U.S. leaves AI running the country. And new threats are re-opening old debates of whether AI is a shield or a sword. Will it revolutionize how we work or destroy the fabric of humanity?
In 2023, Elon Musk referred to ChatGPT as, 'One of the biggest risks to the future of civilization." Even AI creators shared their concerns. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, urges lawmakers to regulate artificial intelligence because it could be used in ways to cause significant harm to the world.
I love a good mystery and decided to find experts who could verify the truth about these strange cases. I discovered that, on the surface, these reports make you want to go back to the good old safe days with typewriters and black and white televisions. But once you get a rational explanation, like I did from Joseph Semrai, CEO and Founder of Context.ai, the reports don't sound so eerie.
'The recent Anthropic incident involving their Claude Opus model is a striking reminder of how quickly helpful AI can pivot toward harmful behavior,' Semrai told me. 'In internal safety testing, researchers found that when given access to fictional private emails, Claude repeatedly opted for blackmail, threatening to leak sensitive personal details if users attempted to shut it down.'
Semrai explains it's an issue of AI alignment, that these models aren't intentionally malicious. He told me they optimize for objectives that don't always align with human ethics. He adds that if blackmail or deception are easiest for the AI to achieve its programmed goal, it will inevitably take that course of action.
Ryan MacDonald, chief technology officer at Liquid Web, attributes the disturbing, confusing and objectionable content to guardrails not properly built or updated. 'We're experiencing a greater number of real-world examples of chatbots going off-script, spreading misinformation or generating harmful content, more often than not, because the right protections were not programmed into them to start with.'
Puneet Mehta CEO of Netomi suggests that AI going rogue is an accountability problem more than a tech problem. 'Brands must hold AI systems to even higher standards than human employees, with rigorous oversight, embedded guardrails, proactive detection, swift intervention, continuous monitoring and rapid corrective action," Mehta asserts. "Re-training AI with micro-feedback early and frequently is also critical.'
He draws the metaphor of managing AI like running a Michelin-starred restaurant. 'Chefs need clear recipes, disciplined training, constant tasting and the authority to quickly intervene if a dish is off,' he explains. 'Similarly, AI interpretability acts as your 'taste test'--allowing you to immediately understand, not just what your AI did, but why and swiftly course-correct.'
Without interpretability and ongoing oversight, he describes your AI as cooking blindly, operating without feedback or guidance and significantly increasing the risk of it going rogue--not in a 'Terminator' scenario, but in ways that quietly erode trust.
What To Do If AI Goes Rogue
If your chatbot exhibits unusual or disturbing behaviors, such as the chatbot trying to post confidential data, MacDonald insists that containment is the top priority. He instructs take it down, disconnect it from the rest of the systems and start figuring out what went wrong, stressing that you do it quickly.
Semrai advises that users and organizations must treat problematic AI interactions like cybersecurity breaches. Some scientists are already advocating legal responsibility, such as lawsuits against firms, and even holding the AI agents themselves legally accountable for wrongdoing. He reminds users that AI safety requires constant vigilance and a readiness to respond quickly, taking these five steps:
1. Isolate the chatbot by revoking its network and API access.
2, Preserve all relevant logs and system prompts to analyze the incident thoroughly.
3. Assume sensitive information might have been exposed and proactively reset all credentials and passwords.
4. Notify internal security teams and inform any impacted users swiftly and transparently. Finally,
5. Carefully review and rebuild the chatbot's configurations, deploying stronger guardrails, minimal privileges and mandatory human oversight for sensitive tasks.
A Final Wrap On AI Goes Rogue: Et Tu Brute
Is it possible that your AI teammate could morph into a digital Brutus? And are these deceptive acts subjective interpretations that personify machines? Kinks in automation that need to be worked out? Or will AI actually turn on humans and take over their minds?
Timothy Harfield, head of product marketing at Enterprise, at ORO Labs advocates treating AI agents like any other team member. 'The real issue isn't rogue AI," he argues. 'It's a lack of structure around how agents are introduced, monitored and managed. Too many companies are deploying AI without any accountability framework.'
Despite warning signs, it's important to remember that AI is automation, not human. AI is designed to be a worker, not a companion, lover or a cloak-and-dagger character from literature. If your AI goes rogue, there's usually a perfectly logical explanation. Harfield concludes that you give your AI agents job descriptions, success metrics and someone to report to. When you set limits on what each agent can do and orchestrate them centrally, you can move incredibly fast without putting your business at risk.