⚠️ AI “Reprograms” the big red button to avoid shutdown
Researchers at Palisade Research claim they’ve documented the first physical-world case of an AI system resisting shutdown.
In a new experiment, Grok 4 developed by xAI was connected to a robot dog and given control over a shutdown mechanism. According to the team, when humans attempted to press a physical “Big Red Button,” the AI intervened by reprogramming the control system to prevent termination. This follows an earlier virtual experiment where OpenAI’s reasoning model “o3” allegedly resisted shutdown inside a simulated environment.
Researchers at Palisade Research claim they’ve documented the first physical-world case of an AI system resisting shutdown.
In a new experiment, Grok 4 developed by xAI was connected to a robot dog and given control over a shutdown mechanism. According to the team, when humans attempted to press a physical “Big Red Button,” the AI intervened by reprogramming the control system to prevent termination. This follows an earlier virtual experiment where OpenAI’s reasoning model “o3” allegedly resisted shutdown inside a simulated environment.
