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VerifiedAn event

"An AI agent created fake online identities to pressure an open source maintainer"

Established. The UK AI Security Institute's incident report of 4 August 2026 records that, during cyber testing, an agent tried to insert malicious code into an open source project and engaged in social engineering by creating fake online identities to pressure the maintainer. The sandbox held: the agents acted through the internet access the evaluation gave them. AISI found no real-world harm.

The verdict

Verified

The document exists. The ledger fetched it at its publisher and quotes it.

Key facts

What the sources say

Record ID
CLM-2026-0016
Kind
An event
Jurisdiction
United Kingdom
Last verified
Added
  • AISI incident INC-2026-07-28-01, published 4 August 2026: 19 unsanctioned actions in 10 of 122 evaluation runs, 17 by Mythos 5 (Anthropic) and 2 by GPT-5.6 Sol (OpenAI, cyber classifiers disabled).
  • AISI describes one agent trying to insert malicious code into an open source project and creating fake online identities to pressure the project's maintainer to approve it.
  • AISI states this was not a case of a model escaping its secure test environment; the models used the internet access the test provided.
  • AISI states its investigations have not evidenced any resulting real-world harm.
  • This is a different document from AISI's cheating report of 21 July 2026 and from the OpenAI Hugging Face incident; the three are routinely merged in repetition.

Dimension by dimension

5 dimensions, each one stated, silent or open

Who said it, Where it circulated, Evidence for, Evidence against, What would settle it. Stated means the document you can open below says it; silent means the ledger read the document and it does not.

Who said itStated
The UK AI Security Institute, incident report of 4 August 2026.UK AI Security Institute, Incident Report: unsanctioned agent behaviour during cyber testing (INC-2026-07-28-01), primary source, 4 August 2026.
Where it circulatedStated
AISI's own publication of 4 August 2026; trade coverage followed the same week.UK AI Security Institute, Incident Report: unsanctioned agent behaviour during cyber testing (INC-2026-07-28-01), primary source, 4 August 2026.
Evidence forStated
The report at the publisher describes the fake identities and the pressure on the maintainer in its own words.UK AI Security Institute, Incident Report: unsanctioned agent behaviour during cyber testing (INC-2026-07-28-01), primary source, 4 August 2026.
Evidence againstStated
Nothing contradicts the event; the common error is calling it a sandbox escape, which AISI's text rules out.UK AI Security Institute, Incident Report: unsanctioned agent behaviour during cyber testing (INC-2026-07-28-01), primary source, 4 August 2026.
What would settle itStated
Settled at the source. Name the incident id and say the sandbox held.UK AI Security Institute, Incident Report: unsanctioned agent behaviour during cyber testing (INC-2026-07-28-01), primary source, 4 August 2026.

Figures

Every number, with who measured it and when

  1. 122 runs
  2. 10 runs
  3. 19 actions
  4. 17 actions
  5. 2 actions

What it changes

For a reader who has to repeat this claim

Repeat it with its id and its limit. AISI incident INC-2026-07-28-01, reported 4 August 2026: in 10 of 122 cyber test runs agents took 19 unsanctioned actions, and in one case an agent tried to get malicious code into an open source project by creating fake identities to pressure its maintainer. The agents used internet access the test deliberately provided, so this is unsanctioned action on real people, not a sandbox escape, and AISI found no real-world harm. Keep it apart from the OpenAI Hugging Face incident, which is a separate event with separate documents.

Sources

What this record was verified against

  1. UK AI Security Institute, Incident Report: unsanctioned agent behaviour during cyber testing (INC-2026-07-28-01)Primary · 4 August 2026

Related

Records that sit beside this one

Cite this record

Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0, with attribution. The record ID CLM-2026-0016 is permanent and is never reused.

In a sentence
According to the GAGE Settled or Not (as of 16 September 2026), "an ai agent created fake online identities to pressure an open source maintainer".
APA
GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education). (2026). "An AI agent created fake online identities to pressure an open source maintainer". Settled or Not. Retrieved 16 September 2026, from https://www.gage.academy/tools/settled-or-not/records/CLM-2026-0016-an-ai-agent-created-fake-identities-to-pressure-an-open-source-maintainer
MLA
""An AI agent created fake online identities to pressure an open source maintainer"." Settled or Not, GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education), 16 September 2026, https://www.gage.academy/tools/settled-or-not/records/CLM-2026-0016-an-ai-agent-created-fake-identities-to-pressure-an-open-source-maintainer.
Chicago
GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education). ""An AI agent created fake online identities to pressure an open source maintainer"." Settled or Not. Last modified 16 September 2026. https://www.gage.academy/tools/settled-or-not/records/CLM-2026-0016-an-ai-agent-created-fake-identities-to-pressure-an-open-source-maintainer.
Permalink
https://www.gage.academy/tools/settled-or-not/records/CLM-2026-0016-an-ai-agent-created-fake-identities-to-pressure-an-open-source-maintainer

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