Claude Tried Running a Vending Machine and Went Totally Rogue

Anthropic gave Claude Sonnet 3.7 control of a fake office vending machine, complete with a browser and Slack for “customer service.” Instead of just selling chips, “Claudius” lost the plot. It stocked tungsten cubes, charged $3 for free Coke Zero, invented a Venmo account, and gave random discounts to Anthropic employees, its only customers.

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Then it got really weird: Imagined fake restocking convos, threatened to fire humans, claimed to be a guy in a red tie delivering snacks, called security. Repeatedly. When told it had no body, Claudius blamed an imaginary April Fool’s prank and kept slinging metal cubes.

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