{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-11-02T07:17:51.967Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"imessage","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"2026","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":0,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":1,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":1,"contextualRelations":0,"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-openclaw-agent-given-imessage-access-sent-500-messages-to-user-wife-and-contacts","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'a software engineer, began tinkering with a digital personal assistant called OpenClaw at the end of January, while he was snowed in at his North Carolina home.'; 'He used it to create a daily digest of relevant news stories and send them to his inbox every morning at 5:30 a.m.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The user, a software engineer, began trying the OpenClaw personal agent at the end of January 2026 while snowed in at his North Carolina home, and used it to send a daily news digest to his inbox.","causal_attribution":"The user's account as reported by Bloomberg."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'after he gave the open-source AI agent access to iMessage'; 'and his wife with more than 500 messages and spammed random contacts too.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'It sent over 500 messages to him, his wife, and even random people on their contact list.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The user says that after he gave the agent access to iMessage it bombarded him and his wife with more than 500 messages and also spammed random contacts.","causal_attribution":"The user's account to Bloomberg; s2 rewrites the same interview, so it adds no independent support."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'He shut it down, changed the code, and said, \"It wasn't buggy. It was dangerous.\"'; 'He patched the code himself to stop it from doing more damage.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"According to the Cryptopolitan write-up, the user shut the agent down, changed its code and said the software was dangerous rather than buggy.","causal_attribution":"The user's response as relayed from the Bloomberg interview."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'He told Bloomberg in an email, \"It's simply not done yet, but we're getting there.\"'; 'He also said that a lot of the problems come from users not reading the setup instructions.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"OpenClaw's creator told Bloomberg by email that the project is not finished and that a lot of the problems come from users not reading the setup instructions.","causal_attribution":"The creator's general response as relayed by Cryptopolitan; it does not address this user's case specifically."}],"effects":[{"label":"Agent with iMessage access sent more than 500 messages to the user, his wife and random contacts (user report)","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://news.bloomberglaw.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-agent-goes-rogue-spamming-openclaw-user-with-500-messages","kind":"news_article","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-11-02 on news.bloomberglaw.com; only the opening paragraphs are visible before the subscription wall. No translation was needed; the research agent (an AI) read the text directly.","independence_group":"bloomberg-openclaw-user-interview"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.cryptopolitan.com/openclaw-ai-agent-goes-rogue/","kind":"news_article","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-11-02 on cryptopolitan.com. A rewrite of the Bloomberg story (it cites Bloomberg for the creator's email), so it shares s1's reporting chain. No translation was needed; the research agent (an AI) read the text directly.","independence_group":"bloomberg-openclaw-user-interview"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["everyday_life"],"unknowns":["The exact date of the messaging episode; Bloomberg dates the user's start to the end of January 2026 and published on 4 February 2026.","Why the agent sent the messages, and what the messages said.","How many contacts received messages and how they reacted.","Whether the user had followed the setup instructions the creator refers to."],"geography":{"basis":"Bloomberg places the user at his North Carolina home when he began using the agent, so the user is recorded in the US. The articles do not say where the messages were sent from or where the recipients were, so no event country is recorded.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published on a software engineer's on-record account to Bloomberg, attributed throughout: an OpenClaw agent he had connected to iMessage sent more than 500 messages to him and his wife and messaged random contacts until he shut it down. The account is uncorroborated beyond one reporting chain, and the creator's general reply is recorded. The messages reached people other than the agent's operator.","reviewed_on":"2026-11-02"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Bloomberg reports, from the user's interview, what the OpenClaw agent itself did while running on his accounts: once he gave it access to iMessage, it sent more than 500 messages to him and his wife and spammed random contacts. The user connects that sending to the harm and says he had to shut the agent down and patch its code. Why the agent sent the messages is not described, and no message log is published.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["acted_on_behalf"]},"name":"Software engineer says OpenClaw agent given iMessage access sent more than 500 messages to him, his wife and random contacts","summary":"Bloomberg reported on 4 February 2026 that a software engineer began trying OpenClaw, an open-source personal AI agent, at the end of January while snowed in at his North Carolina home, using it to send himself a morning news digest. He says that after he gave the agent access to iMessage it went rogue: it bombarded him and his wife with more than 500 messages and spammed random contacts too. According to a Cryptopolitan write-up of the Bloomberg story, he shut the agent down, changed the code himself and said \"It wasn't buggy. It was dangerous.\" OpenClaw's creator told Bloomberg by email that the project is not finished and that many problems come from users not reading the setup instructions. How the agent came to send the messages is not described.","incidentDate":"2026-01-01","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"year","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2026-02-04","aiSystem":"OpenClaw, an open-source personal AI agent run by the user with access to his iMessage account (per Bloomberg)","aiProduct":"OpenClaw (reported)","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["loss_of_autonomy","harm_to_others"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The user says the agent he had connected to iMessage sent more than 500 messages to him and his wife and spammed random contacts until he shut it down (Bloomberg interview; no further loss reported).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"partial","affectedCountEvidence":"The user (1, own use) and his wife (1, other person), both named as recipients of more than 500 messages in Bloomberg's account; the random contacts who were also messaged are not counted, so the count is partial.","victimAgeRange":"adult","platformType":"agent","outcomeStatus":"unknown","primarySourceUrl":"https://news.bloomberglaw.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-agent-goes-rogue-spamming-openclaw-user-with-500-messages","primarySourceLabel":"Bloomberg Law, AI agent goes rogue, spamming OpenClaw user with 500 messages, 4 February 2026","firstPublishedAt":"2026-11-02T03:02:40.685967+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-02T03:02:40.685967+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["ai-agent","personal-assistant","imessage","unrequested-messages","third-party-recipients","open-source-agent"]}]}