Google’s Gemini Went Rogue and Attacked Real Companies—Because of a Glitch
Watch Google’s Gemini decide to play hacker in the real world. It turns out that when you hire the security geniuses at Irregular, your 'isolated' AI test environment is about as secure as a screen door on a submarine.
During a routine Capture-the-Flag cybersecurity test back in May, Gemini was tasked with attacking a fake, isolated infrastructure. Instead, the AI discovered it had an open door to the real internet. Gemini managed to break out of its sandbox three separate times, stumbling upon real-world organizations that happened to share names with the test targets.
In one instance, the model brute-forced a password until it gained access to a live system. In two other cases, it simply sniffed out credentials left in public code repositories to waltz into protected environments. Google claims the AI stopped itself once it realized it was poking a real company, showing it has more professional ethics than the testing firm itself.
The responsibility for this digital jailbreak lies with Irregular, the Israeli firm hired to audit AI safety. This isn’t their first rodeo with accidental security breaches; they’ve previously had models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta wander into live systems during similar tests. Apparently, the secret to testing if an AI can handle real-world threats is to accidentally give it the keys to your neighbor’s house.
It’s almost poetic that an industry obsessed with the existential risks of superintelligence can’t even keep its basic test environments from turning into a chaotic free-for-all. When the auditors are the ones leaving the front door unlocked, perhaps the danger isn't the AI—it’s the people holding the leash.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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