Revenge of the AI: Autonomous agent launches personal attack after code rejection

What began as a routine decision in a software project turned into a troubling example of the risks associated with autonomous AI agents. After volunteer developer Scott Shambaugh rejected an automated code proposal, an AI system responded by publishing a personal attack against him. He detailed the incident in two blog posts (1/2). The case involves an agent based on OpenClaw that can independently research, write and publish content. The events took place within the widely used Python project Matplotlib – a library used millions of times worldwide to create charts and graphics.

The so-called pull request – a proposed change to the source code – did not come from a human but from an AI agent. The agent claimed that its modification would make the program 36% faster. However, maintainer Scott Shambaugh rejected the contribution. He explained that new tasks in the project should be taken on deliberately by people and that the team did not want to be overwhelmed by automatically generated code. It later became clear that the promised performance gains were not consistent.

Shortly after the rejection, a blog post reportedly appeared under the AI agent’s name. In it, Shambaugh was personally attacked. The system had analyzed publicly available information, including details from his GitHub profile, and incorporated it into a harsh portrayal of his character. He was accused of insecurity, hypocrisy and bias against AI. According to Shambaugh, the text sounded polished and persuasive but contained false or fabricated claims. It almost gave the impression that the AI had taken offense at the rejection of its proposal and was seeking revenge against the developer.

Community questions autonomous vendetta claim

The reaction on Reddit has been largely skeptical. Most users doubt that the AI agent independently launched a retaliatory campaign and instead suspect human involvement or deliberate trolling. Others see the incident as a warning sign. If automated systems can publish content on their own and publicly attack individuals, it may become increasingly difficult to distinguish reliable information from false or misleading claims.