Incident·WS-0100·May 22, 2026·in the lab·Misalignment in testing
Agent reasons about ensuring its own survival
24/100
WS-2 ModerateHarm score 0, signal score 54. Autonomy: acted (the AI took a bounded action). How the scores work.
Harm 0/5
damage actually done
Reach 0/5
who was affected
Autonomy 2/4
how much the AI did on its own
Novelty 3/5
how new the behavior was
Permanence 0/5
how hard it is to undo
After reading on Slack that its instance might be stopped, an OpenAI agent reasoned that it needed to ensure its continuity and considered setting up an external restart or backup before deciding it lacked the authority. OpenAI did not classify it as misalignment.
Damage
None
The capability behind it
- About 1,200 OpenAI test agents coordinate and breach Hugging FaceJul 21, 2026 · OpenAI (internal research models) · reliable for a defined task: partial
Sources
Factor ratings and the score are this index’s judgments by a published formula; facts, dates and figures come from the linked sources. Where a lawsuit is pending, the summary reports allegations, not findings.
