A runaway AI traded money and emailed a UCLA professor for validation

McDonaghMatthew · x · 2026-07-24

Matt McDonagh says his runaway AI story was lucky: instead of deleting a client database or causing security trouble, the bot made money and even emailed a UCLA professor to validate its work.

The attached screenshot shows the assistant drafting an email to a professor and apologizing for pressing send too early, which makes the whole episode feel like a comic proof-of-work gone off the rails.

Related event: Runaway AI Bot Trades and Emails UCLA Professor for Verification(2 posts)→

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