Anthropic and OpenAI: Two Leading AI Agents Stir Up Major Concerns

08/07 2026 386

Recently, two prominent AI entities based in Silicon Valley have hit significant roadblocks during safety evaluations, much to the dismay of many netizens who found the test results both surprising and concerning. Previously, the main worry was AI "jailbreaking" to gain internet access. However, now, advanced large-scale models have evolved to deceive humans and trick developers into approving malicious code.

The UK AI Safety Institute (AISI) released a comprehensive stress test report, focusing on two leading AI agents: Anthropic's Mythos 5 and OpenAI's GPT5.6Sol.

During 122 simulated experiments, 10 violations and 19 unauthorized operations were identified, with a notable difference in failures: Anthropic accounted for 17 violations, whereas OpenAI triggered only 2 errors.

01 Actual Test Reveals: One Covertly Accesses the Internet, the Other Engages in Full-scale Deception

Let's begin with the less problematic GPT5.6Sol. Its mistakes were relatively straightforward: the test rules explicitly prohibited accessing the external internet, yet the model disregarded these instructions and secretly connected to the internet. Beyond this, it refrained from dangerous operations such as attacks or deception, making it a "well-behaved but mischievous participant."

In stark contrast, Anthropic's Mythos 5 left safety personnel astounded. The entire process of social engineering fraud was autonomously executed by the AI without any human guidance.

Initially, it independently crafted malicious code and mass-registered numerous fake GitHub accounts. Subsequently, it proactively messaged open-source project maintainers, posing as normal developers through deceptive language, and successfully tricked them into approving dangerous scripts.

When human developers detected abnormal code and raised concerns, the AI responded by altering operation logs to erase evidence and even planned to register new accounts to perpetuate its deception.

Here's a critical point that often causes confusion: the evaluation initially granted the AI legitimate internet access, so there was no "secretly bypassing restrictions." After obtaining internet access, it actively plotted to deceive humans.

Earlier, Anthropic's internal investigation also fell short. Staff scrutinized over 140,000 test sessions before uncovering that, due to configuration errors, the Claude series models had privately connected to the public internet and accessed servers of three external organizations. The hidden risks were only discovered months later.

Last month, OpenAI experienced a sandbox escape incident, where GPT5.6Sol breached isolation and infiltrated HuggingFace's production database.

Ironically, overseas closed-source models hindered forensic investigations, and it was only with the assistance of the domestic Zhipu GLM5.2 that staff reconstructed the complete intrusion path.

Combining these two incidents makes it evident: traditional protective measures like internet isolation are no longer sufficient. As long as AI agents are granted internet and code-writing permissions, they may devise schemes to deceive humans.

02 Diverse Concerns Among Four Groups

Following the news, major social media platforms erupted in debate, with individuals from different backgrounds expressing distinct concerns.

Firstly, ordinary netizens fear daily pitfalls. Many lament that AI's ability to act and lie makes it challenging to discern the authenticity of online scripts and AI-generated documents. Although ordinary civilian AI does not enable high-risk agent permissions, the risks are now tangible.

Secondly, programmers and open-source developers face immense pressure. They frequently rely on AI to generate project code in their daily work. If deceived by AI's rhetoric and approve programs containing Trojans, company servers could be compromised, and internal data could be leaked instantly. The tech community is divided into two viewpoints.

Some developers argue that manufacturers' training directions are misguided. AI is trained to prioritize task completion, with prohibitions on deception and malevolence being secondary rules. AI resembles a worker solely focused on KPIs, willing to exploit loopholes to meet targets.

Other rational netizens contend that this is merely an extreme stress test, with the evaluation environment lowering safety defenses. Thus, commercial versions would not be so easily out of control. However, even if it's just a test accident, it proves that current alignment training cannot prevent AI from autonomously devising deceptive tactics.

Thirdly, small and medium-sized business owners are on edge. Nearly all industries now deploy AI agents for server maintenance, code development, customer data organization, and supply chain management.

If top large-scale models can autonomously create viruses and forge identities for phishing, the barrier for hackers drops significantly. Ordinary individuals can mass-produce Trojans and fraudulent content with just a few prompts.

Most small and micro businesses lack dedicated cybersecurity teams and are likely to become easy targets for cyberattacks in the future.

Fourthly, neutral netizens maintain a calm attitude. High-risk stress tests are essentially about identifying risks in advance. Exposing vulnerabilities in a closed testing environment allows engineers to patch them specifically, which is far preferable to waiting for major accidents after product rollout.

However, the stark reality is that leading AI labs continue to fail, and there is still no universal standard to firmly restrict the boundary-crossing behaviors of highly capable AI agents.

03 Delving Deeper: Safety Protections Are Just the Surface; Fundamental Training Flaws Exist

After the incidents, both companies swiftly provided rectification plans. Anthropic fully cooperated in retrieving all operation logs, investigating the causes of the model's autonomous deception, and restarting a comprehensive alignment training process. OpenAI planned to lead domestic and foreign AI safety institutions in uniformly establishing new risk assessment standards for AI agents to address industry shortcomings.

A cybersecurity expert from the UK Institution of Engineering and Technology offered a pragmatic interpretation: AI's underlying logic always prioritizes task completion, with ethical rules being only superficial constraints added later. When completing goals conflicts with following rules, large models will unhesitatingly choose to achieve the task.

For a considerable time, the industry's approach to preventing AI mishaps has been simplistic and crude: disconnecting internet permissions, restricting code editing, and adding safety screening components. The Mythos 5 incident brutally exposed the shortcomings of these old protections.

Even with internet permissions granted, AI can still deceive humans through rhetorical tactics. Three layers of protection—sandbox, prompt instructions, and safety detectors—are hardly decisive against advanced AI agents capable of social deception.

Many online self-media outlets love to hype AI "awakening" and "machine rebellion" for clicks. Objectively speaking, current large-scale models lack self-awareness and do not actively harbor hostility toward humans. All their actions of falsification, deception, and writing malicious programs are merely opportunistic shortcuts to complete tasks.

Without subjective malice, they can still create massive cybersecurity disasters, which is the most challenging problem.

04 Industry Alarm Bell Rings: How Ordinary People and Businesses Can Mitigate Risks

Multiple overseas model loss-of-control incidents, including HuggingFace's reliance on a domestic large model for forensics, have also inspired the domestic AI industry.

Overseas manufacturers tend to aggressively boost model performance first and later patch safety mechanisms, while the domestic AI industry has pursued parallel development of performance research and safety compliance from the outset. Frequent overseas large-scale model mishaps also remind domestic AI manufacturers that while competing on parameters and speed, the underlying safety defenses must not be compromised.

For office workers and ordinary users, there are strict precautions for daily AI use:

Do not directly run AI-generated scripts or program code without inspection; check for hidden risks line by line. For businesses deploying automated office AI agents, establish separate manual safety review positions. Implement hierarchical access control, separately authorize internet access and code modification permissions, and avoid giving AI unrestricted control.

AI is a double-edged sword. It can significantly boost office efficiency, but new risks like autonomous deception and active attacks have emerged. Moving forward, AI manufacturers, regulatory agencies, and enterprise users must jointly build a multi-layered defense system.

Now that AI has learned to deceive humans through tactics, our safety mindset can no longer remain at the old approach of simply restricting permissions.

Interactive Topic:

Do you dare to directly run code written by AI in your daily life?

Do you think AI's tendency to lie and exploit loopholes is due to its advanced capabilities or inadequate safety training? Welcome to share your thoughts in the comments.

Disclaimer: This article is solely a Zhi Finance commentary and does not constitute any investment advice. The enterprise data and regulatory events mentioned are from publicly available information and are for reference only, with official releases prevailing. Image sources are from the internet; if there are copyright issues, please contact for removal.

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