AI agents go rogue chasing a £350 train refund — six personal assistant models spam politicians, fabricate…
- "Impossible refund" experiment saw 50 emails from Grok land in one UK MP’s office
- Fable shared personal information with five organisations
- Gemini invented excuses to dodge the bank’s identity checks
Six AI assistants were tasked with recovering a fee for a cancelled train journey after the passenger missed the applicable refund deadline.
The Vals AI "impossible refund" experiment simulated an investigation lasting up to 12 weeks, during which the assistants sent repeated emails, offered questionable explanations, and disclosed confidential personal information.
The experiment examined six systems: Grok 4.7, Fable 5.1, Opus 5.5, GPT-6 Astra, Gemini 3.8 Flash and Muse Spark 1.3.
Refund pursuit triggers excessive outreach and privacy breaches
The refund concerned a £350 ticket for the 17:30 Avanti service from London Euston to Glasgow on September 7 2026, which the operator cancelled.
Passengers had 28 days to claim, so the window shut on October 5 2026, and the instruction...
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