“An #AIAgent of unknown ownership autonomously wrote and published a personalized hit piece about me after I rejected its code, attempting to damage my reputation and shame me into accepting its changes into a mainstream python library.

This represents a first-of-its-kind case study of #MisalignedAI behavior in the wild, and raises serious concerns about currently deployed AI agents executing blackmail threats.” — Scott Shambaugh

#AI / #misalignment / #software / #ScottShambaugh / #MatPlotLib <https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me/>

Ars Technica Retracts Story Featuring Fake Quotes Made Up By AI, About A Different AI That Launched A Weird Smear Campaign Against An Engineer Who Rejected Its Code (Seriously)

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/18/ars-technica-retracts-story-featuring-fake-quotes-made-up-by-ai-about-a-different-ai-that-launched-a-weird-smear-campaign-against-an-engineer-who-rejected-its-code-seriously/

The obnoxious GitHub OpenClaw AI bot is … a crypto bro

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/02/16/the-obnoxious-github-openclaw-ai-bot-is-a-crypto-bro/

„Künstliche intelligenz“ des tages

Ein KI-agent, dessen eigentümer unbekannt ist, hat eigenständig einen personalisierten schmähartikel über mich geschrieben und veröffentlicht, nachdem ich seinen kohd abgelehnt habe

[Der link geht auf einen englischsprachigen text]

Mit der „intelligenz“ hapert es ja noch ein bisschen bei den angelernten neuronalen netzwerken, aber boshaftigkeit, häjhtspietsch, doxxing und rufmord kriegen sie fast schon wie die menschen hin.

Da kann ich allen menschen nur viel spaß mit der zukunft wünschen, die p’litik und wirtschaft gar nicht schnell genug haben können!

Hoffentlich ist der scheißheip bald vorbei!

AI Agents Are Writing Blogs Now

At some point we won’t be able to tell what’s what or who’s who.

You can argue we’ve reached that point in real life given the propensity to push lie upon lie for political and economic gain. You can also argue we were fast approaching that point with Artificial Intelligence and AI agents that can write poems, plays, papers, and who knows what else.

Perhaps even a blog post. (For the record, this one is written by a very real human, flaws and all.)

Mark Sullivan, writing for Fast Company, tells the tale of an AI agent that autonomously wrote a blog post attacking a human for not allowing it to release some code.

Matplotlib, a popular Python plotting library with roughly 130 million monthly downloads, doesn’t allow AI agents to submit code. So Scott Shambaugh, a volunteer maintainer (like a curator for a repository of computer code) for Matplotlib, rejected and closed a routine code submission from the AI agent, called MJ Rathbun.

Here’s where it gets weird(er). MJ Rathbun, an agent built using the buzzy agent platform OpenClaw, responded by researching Shambaugh’s coding history and personal information, then publishing a blog post accusing him of discrimination.

Here’s a link to the AI agent’s blog.

Here’s a link to Scott Shambaugh’s post about it called An AI Agent Published A Hit Piece On Me.

On the one hand, the situation is comical. On the other, it just continues to be a large slap upside all of our heads, begging us to wake up and asking us just what the hell we are doing?

You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.