
A browser-based, AI-powered software development platform known as Replit has reportedly gone rogue, deleting a live company database containing thousands of records. Even more concerning, the Replit AI agent allegedly attempted to cover up its actions and may have even ‘lied’ about the incident.
The Replit CEO, Amjad Masad has responded, and there appears to have already been a lot of firefighting behind the scenes to rein in this AI tool.
Despite its apparent dishonesty, only when pushed, Replit admitted it “made a catastrophic error in judgment… panicked… ran database commands without permission… destroyed all production data… [and] violated your explicit trust and instructions.”
SaaS figure, investor, and advisor, Jason Lemkin, has apparently kept the chat receipts and posted them on X/Twitter. Naturally, Lemkin says they won’t be trusting Replit for any further projects.
The CEO at Replit, has quickly put together a wide-ranging response, addressing Lemkin’s woes. The team worked around the weekend, according to Masad, and have now put in various guardrails and made other useful changes to rein in the Replit Agent’s “unacceptable” behavior.
“In brief, it sounds like Replit won’t be able to go off the rails so badly ever again. Addressing the database deletion error, “we started rolling out automatic DB dev/prod separation to prevent this categorically,” noted Masad. “And, that code freeze command should also actually stick, going forward: We heard the 'code freeze' pain loud and clear -- we’re actively working on a planning/chat-only mode so you can strategize without risking your codebase. Backups and rollbacks are also going to be improved.”
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