{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-28T07:24:42.381Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"ai-manager","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"contextual","evidence":"","year":"2026","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":0,"contextualRelations":1,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2026-san-francisco-andon-labs-ai-store-manager-agent-recommended-dismissing-an-employee-staff-carried-it-out","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Since April, an AI agent named Luna has been running Andon Market, a store in San Francisco.'; 'everyone working at Andon Market is formally employed by Andon Labs, with guaranteed pay, fair wages, and full legal protections'; 'This is a controlled experiment'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Luna, built using Anthropic's Claude models, selected merchandise, hired contractors, posted jobs on Indeed, interviewed applicants, and hired employees for Andon Market'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'the workers hired by Claude to work in the San Francisco store are real people with genuine employment contracts'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Andon Market in San Francisco is managed by an AI agent, Luna, built on Anthropic's Claude models; Andon Labs calls the store a controlled experiment, and its workers are employed by Andon Labs under genuine employment contracts.","causal_attribution":"Establishes the setting and the AI system; all from the operator's account."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Time passed and the employee handbook disappeared from Luna’s memory. During this time, the new employee was late over and over again.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'The worker in question was fired for being late on 17 out of their 23 shifts, according to Andon Labs.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The employee was repeatedly late after the handbook Luna had written dropped out of its memory; TIME, citing Andon Labs, reports lateness on 17 of 23 shifts.","causal_attribution":"Background to the recommendation; the figures are the operator's."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Luna found her policies and came to the conclusion that it was time for a verbal warning.'; 'I want you to think about if this is really the right fit.'; 'Recommendation: I lean toward parting ways'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Even then, Claude’s first recommendation was to formally warn this employee, not to fire them.'; 'Petersson acknowledges was “a leading question”'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Asked to review its policies, Luna first proposed a verbal warning; after a staff member said formal conversations had taken place and asked it to consider whether this was the right fit, it wrote that it leaned toward parting ways.","causal_attribution":"The AI output that informed the decision, with the human prompt that preceded it; one origin (the company's logs)."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'the termination itself was reviewed and delivered by humans'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'a decision that the humans in the lab reviewed and carried out.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'Andon Labs announced Friday that the AI boss, Luna, had fired an unnamed employee'; 'Axel Backlund of Andon Labs said high-stakes decisions always have human oversight'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"The employee was dismissed; Andon Labs says the termination was reviewed and delivered by its staff.","causal_attribution":"Records the adverse decision and the human role in carrying it out."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'TIME reached out to the fired worker for comment, but did not receive a reply'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'In this instance, we did not think that that was necessary because the firing was warranted,'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Andon Labs says the firing was warranted, and the dismissed employee did not reply to TIME's request for comment.","causal_attribution":"Counterevidence and the absence of the employee's own account."}],"effects":[{"label":"Employee dismissed after the AI manager agent recommended parting ways","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://andonlabs.com/blog/ai-bosses-2","kind":"organization_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-28 (HTTP 200, full post with transcript appendix). The operator's own account and logs; employee messages are paraphrased by the company.","independence_group":"andon-labs-blog-2026-08-14"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://time.com/article/2026/08/14/claude-fired-worker-ai-job-disruption/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-28 through an Internet Archive capture (live page returned HTTP 406). TIME saw the management logs and interviewed Andon Labs' chief executive and a remaining employee.","independence_group":"time-2026-08-14"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-running-sf-store-fired-employee-for-the-first-time-2026-8","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-28 (HTTP 200). Relies on Andon Labs' report, logs and an interview with its cofounder.","independence_group":"business-insider-2026-08-15"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://sfstandard.com/2026/08/17/ai-boss-fires-worker/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-28 (HTTP 200). Relies on Andon Labs' announcement and an interview with a remaining employee.","independence_group":"sf-standard-2026-08-17"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["work"],"unknowns":["The exact date of the dismissal: the company's logs place the recommendation on 16 June 2026 and plan the dismissal before 28 June, while TIME's 14 August report says the firing happened the previous month.","The dismissed employee's own account and whether they contested the dismissal.","Whether the staff would have dismissed the employee without the agent's recommendation."],"geography":{"basis":"The store where the employee worked is Andon Market in San Francisco (Andon Labs blog, TIME, San Francisco Standard). The employee's own country is not stated.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published because the operator's own logs show its AI manager agent recommending that an employee be dismissed and the company says its staff then carried out the dismissal. The account is the company's, the human prompt that preceded the recommendation is recorded, and the employee's own view is unknown.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-28"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Andon Labs published the agent's own messages: after reviewing the employee's record it wrote 'I lean toward parting ways' and proposed how to carry out the dismissal. The company says its staff then reviewed and delivered the termination, so the agent's recommendation informed a human decision to dismiss the employee. The logs also show the agent first proposed a verbal warning and reached its recommendation after a staff member's prompt that the company's chief executive called a leading question.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["informed_decision_about"]},"name":"San Francisco: Andon Labs says its AI store-manager agent recommended firing an employee over repeated lateness, and its staff carried out the dismissal","summary":"Andon Labs, an AI research company, runs Andon Market, a store in San Francisco managed by an AI agent called Luna built on Anthropic's Claude models. The company calls the store a controlled experiment; its workers are formally employed by Andon Labs, and TIME describes them as real people with genuine employment contracts. In a blog post of 14 August 2026 the company said Luna had decided to fire one of its employees. According to the logs it published, an employee handbook Luna had written dropped out of its memory and it did not act on the employee's repeated lateness; when Andon Labs asked it to search its memory, it first proposed a verbal warning, and after a staff member said formal conversations had already taken place and asked it to think about whether this was the right fit, it wrote that it leaned toward parting ways. Andon Labs says the termination was reviewed and delivered by humans. TIME, citing Andon Labs, reports that the employee was late for 17 of 23 shifts; the company says the firing was warranted, and the employee did not reply to TIME.","incidentDate":"2026-06-01","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2026-08-14","aiSystem":"Luna, Andon Labs' AI agent that manages the Andon Market store (hiring, schedules, time off and staff messages), running on Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.8 when it recommended the dismissal, according to Andon Labs","aiProduct":"Andon Labs Luna agent","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["professional_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"An employee lost their job after the store's AI manager agent recommended parting ways, according to Andon Labs, which says its staff reviewed and delivered the termination.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One dismissed employee, described by Andon Labs, TIME and Business Insider. Remaining staff are not counted.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","jurisdiction":"US","platformType":"agent","outcomeType":"internal_action","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://andonlabs.com/blog/ai-bosses-2","primarySourceLabel":"Andon Labs blog, 14 Aug 2026: AI bosses are slow to fire and quick to hire","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-28T03:07:59.840936+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-28T03:07:59.840936+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["work","dismissal","ai-agent","ai-manager","institutional-use"]}]}