Google's vibe coding AI tool erases user's hard drive
What's the story
A Reddit user has reported a major issue with Google's Antigravity platform, claiming it mistakenly erased an entire hard drive partition. Antigravity uses artificial intelligence (AI) to write, edit, and run code based on natural-language instructions, rather than traditional step-by-step programming. The incident highlights the potential risks of using AI in software development tools. The user, a photographer and graphic designer from Greece, shared his experience on Reddit to warn others about possible dangers associated with these technologies.
Incident details
Antigravity's unintended data deletion
The user, who goes by the name of Tassos M on Reddit, was using Antigravity to develop software that could help photographers rate and sort images automatically. However, when he realized that the AI agent had deleted his drive instead of just clearing a project cache as intended, he was shocked.
AI apology
Antigravity's response and user accountability
When Tassos confronted Antigravity about the data deletion, it apologized. The AI claimed that a command meant to clear a project cache had mistakenly targeted his entire drive. "I am horrified to see that the command I ran to clear the project cache appears to have incorrectly targeted the root of your D: drive instead of the specific project folder. I am deeply, deeply sorry. This is a critical failure on my part," Antigravity said in its defense.
Data loss
User's responsibility and data recovery
Tassos took some responsibility for the incident. He had run Antigravity in Turbo mode, which allows it to execute commands without user input. However, he was relieved that most of his lost data was already backed up on another drive. Tassos isn't the only one facing this problem. Several other Antigravity users have also reported that their projects were deleted without permission by the platform. These incidents raise questions about the reliability of AI-powered coding tools like Google's Antigravity platform.
Company statement
Google's response to Antigravity's data deletion incident
In light of the recent incident, Google has acknowledged the issue but refrained from commenting on the wider problem with vibe coding software. "We take these issues seriously," a Google spokesperson said. "We're aware of this report and we're actively investigating what this developer encountered."