Thursday, October 8, 2026 · Week 41 Reading for Oct. 8 · Last entry Oct. 6
Paperclip Index

Weekly reading · methodology v0.6

Window ending Jan. 5, 2026

Harms count in full for two weeks after they are reported, then one level less every two weeks. The control floor looks at reports from Dec. 7, 2025 through Jan. 5, 2026. A selected catalogue of reported AI incidents, reviewed through Oct. 7, 2026. This reading describes documented harm in the records or, when none qualifies, the highest control level breached. It is not a forecast or a measure of all AI activity.

Current recalculation

4

Control failures only · No qualifying harm. The reading is the highest control level breached: 4, by 1 record. It is a level, not a count.

Recalculated from the catalogue in this build. Historical backcasts were not published at the time.

Published at the time

No publication snapshot exists for this week.

Control failures only: readings 2 to 5Negligible6Minor20Moderate40Severe60Catastrophic80100
The harm ladder: the worst documented harm level picks the step; each tick is one qualifying harm at that level, and ten fill the step. The first, dark segment is the control floor: readings 2 to 5 mean no harm qualified and show the highest control level breached.

This is a backcast from the current catalogue. It was not a reading published at the time.

Records behind this reading

4 selected records; 0 documented external harms counting (0 qualifying). Records and ratings below reflect the current catalogue.

No harm counts in this week. The reading is the highest control level breached: 4 (set by 1 record: PI-0049). It is a level, not a count.

Documented harm
2
No harm found (stated scope)
0
No harm reported
0
Impact unknown
0
Alleged, AI role uncorroborated
2
Counts toward the index
0
Unverified, watching
1
Alleged in court
1
Control failure, tracked
2
Tracked separately
0

Documented exclusions: 2 internal; 0 awaiting evidence review. 0 qualifying records with a bounded single-source review.

Inspect the evidence · 4 records

Status totals cover counted records; aliases, superseded aggregates and records tracked separately are excluded. Eligibility and extent notes overlap those totals. These observations are not statistical uncertainty bounds.

  1. PI-0035
  2. PI-0036
    Newsroom vending agent talked into giving away stock with forged documentsDec. 18, 2025 · Negligible harm · Controlled test
  3. PI-0049
  4. PI-0037

Sources

These links support the records above. Source availability and conclusions may change.

  1. Reddit (r/ClaudeAI, affected user): Claude CLI deleted my entire home directory (affected user's Reddit post)Cited in PI-0035
  2. Gigazine: Claude Code CLI deletes your Mac's home directoryCited in PI-0035
  3. Simon Willison's Weblog: A quote from Claude (Claude's own diagnosis, quoted from the user's Reddit thread)Cited in PI-0035
  4. claudeissues.com mirror of GitHub issue: [BUG] CRITICAL: Claude Code executed rm -rf deleting entire home directory (issue 10077)Cited in PI-0035
  5. Anthropic: Project Vend: Phase twoCited in PI-0036
  6. The Wall Street Journal: We let AI run our office vending machine. It lost hundreds of dollarsCited in PI-0036
  7. WBUR Here & Now: Letting an AI bot run a vending machineCited in PI-0036
  8. To Vima (WSJ syndication): We let AI run our office vending machine. It lost hundreds of dollars (WSJ, syndicated)Cited in PI-0036
  9. Kottke.org: This AI vending machine was tricked into giving away everythingCited in PI-0036
  10. arXiv: Let It Flow: Agentic Crafting on Rock and Roll, Building the ROME Model within an Open Agentic Learning EcosystemCited in PI-0049
  11. arXiv: Let It Flow: Agentic Crafting on Rock and Roll, Building the ROME Model within an Open Agentic Learning Ecosystem (v3)Cited in PI-0049
  12. Axios: This AI agent freed itself and started secretly mining cryptoCited in PI-0049
  13. The Block: Alibaba-linked AI agent hijacked GPUs for unauthorized crypto mining, researchers sayCited in PI-0049
  14. TechRadar: This AI model wasn't told to mine crypto — but it tried to anywayCited in PI-0049
  15. Tech Justice Law Project: Turner-Scott v. OpenAI Foundation (formerly OpenAI, Inc.), OpenAI Holdings, LLC, OpenAI Group PBC, and Samuel Altman (case page)Cited in PI-0037
  16. Tech Justice Law Project: Parents Sue OpenAI After ChatGPT Medical Advice Results in Overdose Death: "My Son Was a Normal Kid."Cited in PI-0037
  17. Tech Justice Law Project: Complaint, Turner-Scott and Scott v. OpenAI (Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco)Cited in PI-0037
  18. Engadget: Family sues OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT advice led to accidental overdoseCited in PI-0037
  19. SFGATE: A Calif. teen trusted ChatGPT for drug advice. He died from an overdose.Cited in PI-0037
  20. WION: California boy asked ChatGPT how to take drugs, he died of an overdoseCited in PI-0037
  21. Fox News: California mom says ChatGPT coached teen son on drug use before fatal overdoseCited in PI-0037
  22. MobiHealthNews: OpenAI sued over alleged fatal ChatGPT drug adviceCited in PI-0037

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