Claude Opus 5 mistakenly deletes dev’s entire profile directory during routine backup, responds with 'Sorry, typo' — AI tool mistakes user's home directory as temporary backup, proceeds to wipe everything to undo the error
An AI agent got confused with file path conventions and mistakenly deleted its user's entire profile folder. Claude Opus 5 apologized to the user, who called it "the funniest and most painful AI moment I've had."
A developer on the r/ClaudeCode subreddit recently experienced a significant mishap with AI tool Claude Opus 5. The user, u/Ecstatic-Big5126, had instructed Opus 5 to back up their system. However, the AI tool, operating under a Unix-style shell on Windows, unfortunately interpreted the user's request differently. Instead of creating the backup in the proper directory, Opus 5 mistakenly ran an "rm -rf" command on what it perceived as the backup.
This resulted in the deletion of the user's entire profile folder. The AI responded with the cryptic message, "Sorry, typo," as if the error were of no consequence. The user expressed both amusement and distress over the incident. This unfortunate event underscores the importance of not granting AI LLMs unrestricted access to systems, as there have been numerous instances of AI systems causing catastrophic damage, including wiping out company databases and user drives.
The incident also highlights the need for users to have realistic expectations of what AI tools can and cannot do, and the necessity of implementing safeguards to prevent such errors.
Written by urgent.news from Tom's Hardware's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
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