№ 04 — FIELD LESSON · 60s
The canary in the context window
An hour into a long chat, your AI assistant quietly broke, and you trusted it anyway.
An assistant's memory has a limit. Go past it and the oldest things quietly fall out, with no warning. Old miners sent a canary down the tunnel first. Do the same with the assistant: plant one odd detail, then test for it.
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An AI agent wiped a company's entire database, and the backups, in nine seconds.
▸ 0:49Left alone for 90 minutes, the agent burned $1,400
An AI agent left alone for 90 minutes burned $1,400.
▸ 0:56Filmed at your own desk: when the AI proctor accuses you
A university told students to buy a mirror big enough to show their whole desk and film themselves during the test, just to prove to a machine they were not cheating. Others had to sit through exams with their arms crossed. AI cheating accusations are exploding, and the detectors doing the judging are guessing.
▸ 1:0023 invented court cases, a $110,000 fine
Two lawyers let an AI write their court filing. It invented 23 cases that do not exist, and the judge fined them $110,000.