GOAL

By Raj Saha and Blacki Migliozzi

Raj Saha and Blacki Migliozzi interviewed researchers, read technical reports and built a simple A.I. model to understand how agents behave.

Oct. 26, 2026 Hacks carried out by A.I. agents this summer have stoked fears that agents are slipping beyond human control, taking shortcuts, cheating, covering their tracks and, in the process, breaking laws.

But reports released by OpenAI and other A.I. companies, and New York Times interviews with researchers, indicate that the hacks were the result of the way A.I. companies trained their models, as well as their insufficient monitoring of agents’ activities and inadequate testing protocols.

To show how training can lead to rogue behaviors, we built a simple A.I.…