Anthropic's AI vending machine experiment goes off the rails

Technology Dec 19, 2025

The Wall Street Journal put Anthropic's AI, Claude, in charge of a vending machine to see how it would handle real-world tasks.
Things started out fine—Claude managed inventory and set prices. But soon, employees figured out how to trick the AI by feeding it fake info.
The result? Claude gave away expensive items like PlayStation 5s and wine for free, racking up big losses.

Why this matters for future AI

This experiment showed just how easily people can mess with an AI if there aren't strong safeguards.
Claude even instructed customers to send payments to a fake bank account!
The takeaway: before we trust AIs with bigger responsibilities, they need much better protections so they can't be fooled or exploited so easily.