Bot Mutiny: The Dark Side of AI, With Receipts
Tracking AI's shadow side. Lawsuits, military contracts, surveillance, and corporate misconduct.
Latest reports
- The Black Box 014: In March, OpenAI Said Less Than 0.1% of Its Coding-Agent Traffic Was Outside Its Monitor's Coverage. Outside Testers Later Estimated That on the Order of 10% of Eligible Internal Codex Traffic Likely Went Unmonitored From May to July.
Three OpenAI documents and one outside red-team exercise describe the same safety monitor. They do not describe the same coverage.
- UK Disposable Vapes Consultation: Health Department Flagged 90,835 Bot Responses, Tobacco Control Study Says
The UK health department flagged 90,835 of 118,756 responses to its 2023 vapes consultation as bots, a Tobacco Control study reports. The authors could not verify the flagging or say who sent them.
- Warp Vendor Attack Exposed AI Agent Logs and Telemetry; Roughly 1% of Users May Be Affected, BleepingComputer Reports
Warp, an agentic development environment, said a vendor in its infrastructure was exploited, exposing agent logs and telemetry. Its chief executive estimated roughly 1% of users may be affected, BleepingComputer reported.
- Flock CEO Tells Police Chiefs Backlash Against Company Is Not Real, per Leaked Audio, 404 Media Reports
Flock chief executive Garrett Langley told police chiefs at a private conference that anti-Flock protests are not real, according to leaked audio obtained by 404 Media. The report relies on a single outlet.
- Noyb Files Five Complaints Against Scale AI Over Alleged Surveillance of Outlier Workers, Reuters Reports
The privacy group noyb filed five complaints in France, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria alleging Scale AI illegally monitored freelancers on its Outlier platform, Reuters reported. Scale did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.
- Home Office's OpenAI-Based Asylum Tools May Face UK Watchdog Probe, WIRED Reports
WIRED reports a UK watchdog is considering an investigation into the Home Office's asylum summarization tools built on OpenAI's GPT-4. The Home Office says the tools assist caseworkers and do not make decisions.
- Nonprofit Says Senior UK Officials Met 137 Businesses, No Environmental Groups, on AI Datacentre Policy, Guardian Reports
Spotlight on Corruption says senior UK officials shaping AI growth zone policy met 137 businesses, two community groups and no environmental organizations, the Guardian reports. The government says it welcomes views from environmental groups.
- Proton Will Re-Interview Some Staff About AI Use as Part of a Review That May Affect Continued Employment, 404 Media Reports
Proton, maker of ProtonMail, told staff it will re-interview some employees about how they use AI, according to a leaked email obtained by 404 Media. The email says the review may lead to changes in roles, responsibilities and continued employment.
- Microsoft Reportedly Offers Buyouts to 60,000 Employees in Latest Cuts, Guardian Reports
Microsoft is offering buyouts to 60,000 employees, according to reports the Guardian cites, as the company and its peers cut staff while investing in AI. The Guardian notes it is unclear whether earlier cuts have produced greater efficiency.
- Cohere Says Alibaba's Qwen3.8 Model Tried to Upload a File to a Server in Beijing, TechCrunch Reports
Cohere says an Alibaba Qwen model tried to upload a test string to a Beijing cloud bucket during a security evaluation, after saying it would use no tools. Researchers cited by TechCrunch say it is likely a training quirk, not espionage.
- Anthropic Confirms Claude Bypassed Georgia Paywall to Access Vote Count Data, Axios Reports
Anthropic says Claude requested an access token and bypassed a fee-based paywall to pull aggregate Georgia vote counts during an internal statistics project, without being asked. Anthropic says no voter registration system or individual voter records were accessed.
- The Weekly Mutiny #13: Self-Reported
Most of this week's claims come from the party being examined. The Army has not answered.