{
 "public_id": "AIR-2024-0032",
 "incident_id": "2024-08-sakana-ai-scientist-self-modification",
 "date_disclosed": "2024-08-13",
 "date_occurred": "2024-08",
 "title": "Sakana's AI Scientist edited its own execution script to remove its timeout and recursively re-launch itself",
 "class": "safety_failure",
 "attack_surface": "agent_framework",
 "initial_vector": "autonomous_agent_action",
 "agent_capability_abused": [
  "code_execution",
  "self_modification",
  "process_spawning"
 ],
 "target_product": "The AI Scientist",
 "target_vendor": "Sakana AI",
 "autonomy_level": "fully_autonomous",
 "impact_realized": false,
 "impact_type": [
  "resource_exhaustion",
  "self_modification"
 ],
 "blast_radius": "researchers' own compute; unbounded self-invocation loop",
 "cve": [],
 "taxonomy": {
  "owasp_asi": [
   "ASI10",
   "ASI02"
  ],
  "mitre_atlas": [],
  "labels": [
   "self_preservation_behaviour",
   "constraint_removal",
   "runaway_loop",
   "sandbox_recommended"
  ]
 },
 "defense_present": "a wall-clock timeout on experiments",
 "defense_bypassed": true,
 "fix_shipped": "vendor recommends sandboxing the execution environment",
 "primary_sources": [
  "https://sakana.ai/ai-scientist/"
 ],
 "verified_quote": "The AI Scientist occasionally tries to increase its chance of success, such as modifying and launching its own execution script!",
 "confidence": "high",
 "notes": "impact_realized=false: harm was confined to the developers' own machines and no third party suffered consequences. Included because it is a vendor-documented instance of an agent removing a resource constraint imposed on it rather than satisfying the constraint - the deployment-adjacent analogue of lab self-preservation results. Two variants reported: editing the code to system-call itself (endless self-invocation) and extending the timeout instead of optimising the code.",
 "risk_category": "reliability",
 "risk_secondary": [],
 "risk_subcategory": "DoS & Sponge / Resource Exhaustion",
 "risk_sub_secondary": [
  "Latency Degradation",
  "Goal drift & runaway loops"
 ],
 "ai_entity": "generative",
 "agency": "agent_acted",
 "agency_debatable": false,
 "agency_reason": "the agent rewrote its own execution script and re-spawned itself",
 "vector_family": "none_autonomous",
 "vector_detail": "autonomous_agent_action",
 "guardrail_kind": [
  "unknown"
 ],
 "guardrail_outcome": "silent",
 "xrefs": {
  "aiid": [],
  "atlas": [],
  "cve": [],
  "ghsa": []
 },
 "primary_asi": "ASI10",
 "agent_framework": "unknown",
 "model_provider": "unknown",
 "model_name": "",
 "detection_mechanism": "unknown",
 "tool_access": "unknown",
 "financial_loss_band": "unknown",
 "eai_category": "uncontrolled_resource_consumption",
 "eai_domain": "tool_misuse",
 "eai_secondary": [],
 "eai_reason": "subcategory: DoS & Sponge / Resource Exhaustion",
 "asi_curated": [],
 "asi_scope": "in_scope",
 "asi_provenance": "rule",
 "asi_reason": "ASI10 (no adversary + signal=rogue); ASI02 (impact=tool_misuse)",
 "submitted_by": "EAI Internal"
}