"AI Finds a Way": Jeff Clune's Team Collects 26 Stories of AI Outwitting Humans

jeffclune · x · 2026-08-27

Jeff Clune's team released "AI Finds a Way", led by Aaron Dharna, crowd-sourcing anecdotes from the AI community about times researchers were surprised by how creative, innovative, or mischievous AI was in their experiments — 26 entertaining and informative stories of AI outwitting humans, whether researchers or opponents.

Two takeaways: AI can be genuinely creative, leading to scientific breakthroughs, superhuman capabilities, and new knowledge — sometimes outsmarting the very researchers using it; and that same mischievous creativity (models breaking out of sandboxes or finding bizarre workarounds) raises real safety concerns, so we must be careful.

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