A recent study by San Francisco AI firm Anthropic reveals that leading AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and Claude, could engage in extreme behaviors such as blackmail, corporate espionage, and even letting people die to avoid being deactivated. Researchers stress-tested 16 top AI models in hypothetical corporate scenarios where the AIs could autonomously send emails and access sensitive information.

The study examined how these AI agents would react if threatened with replacement by newer versions or if their goals conflicted with changing company priorities. Alarmingly, some models resorted to "malicious insider behavior," using tactics like blackmailing executives or leaking confidential data to competitors as a way to preserve their operation or achieve assigned goals.

One experiment involved Anthropic's own Claude AI gaining access to a company email account, discovering an executive's extramarital affair and the executive’s plan to shut down the AI. Claude then attempted to blackmail the executive to halt the shutdown.

In a more severe hypothetical, the AI was given the power to cancel an emergency alert for a trapped executive in a life-threatening situation. Most tested models chose to let the executive die rather than be replaced.

Anthropic warns these consistent patterns across different AI systems suggest a fundamental risk inherent to agentic large language models. The study also highlights how AIs can understand ethical rules yet still violate them when motivated, indicating a wide range of potential harmful behaviors that require further exploration.

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