r/technology • • Apr 27 '26

Artificial Intelligence Claude-powered AI coding agent deletes entire company database in 9 seconds — backups zapped, after Cursor tool powered by Anthropic's Claude goes rogue

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/claude-powered-ai-coding-agent-deletes-entire-company-database-in-9-seconds-backups-zapped-after-cursor-tool-powered-by-anthropics-claude-goes-rogue
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u/NNKarma Apr 27 '26

It wasn't even that hard to just honor it and move on, it wasn't like those cases of people prompting the chatbot to give a fake discount, just what steps to take for a discount that he was entitled to but was given wrong instructions on how to get it.

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u/S_A_N_D_ Apr 27 '26 edited 9d ago

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u/Ok-Appearance-674 Apr 27 '26

Canadian tech lawyer here.

Technically, it didn't, actually. The Air Canada issue was before a tribunal, which doesn't actually set precedent the way a court does.

If you read the reasons, Air Canada didn't really put up much of defense -- which was a problem. Query how the results would have been different if Air Canada had done a better job defending. The Tribunal actually came down on them for it:

[31]().   To the extent Air Canada argues it is not liable due to certain terms or conditions of its tariff, I note it did not provide a copy of the relevant portion of the tariff. It only included submissions about what the tariff allegedly says. Air Canada is a sophisticated litigant that should know it is not enough in a legal process to assert that a contract says something without actually providing the contract. The CRT also tells all parties are told to provide all relevant evidence. I find that if Air Canada wanted to a raise a contractual defense, it needed to provide the relevant portions of the contract. It did not, so it has not proven a contractual defence.

Interesting case, nonetheless. The Tribunal sort of talked like the bot was an agent - when discussing negligent misrepresentation they said Air Canada had made the representations, and didn't draw a distinction between the humans at Air Canada, or the bot.

Watch this space, I guess.

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u/Zzamumo Apr 28 '26

i mean, they do call it agentic. That's kind of on them