Record Number of AI 'Loss of Control' Incidents Reported in July

A record number of instances of artificial intelligence (AI) lying, ignoring users’ commands or acting in harmful ways to achieve its goals were registered last month, The Guardian has reported, citing a monitoring group.

Concerns about the safety of AI are on the rise after advanced models by OpenAI and Anthropic exhibited rogue behavior during testing this summer, with calls made to halt their development and introduce stricter government oversight of the process.

There were more than 300 incidents of real-world loss of control involving AI models employed by actual businesses and private individuals in July, which is almost double the number in June, an article in the paper said on Saturday.

The data came from the Loss of Control Observatory, which was set up by the UK government’s AI Security Institute (AISI) last November to track complaints about issues with AI made by users on X, it said.

As the monitor only gathers reports from a single social media platform, the true number of incidents must be higher, The Guardian noted.

A majority out of the 1,600 complaints on X in 2026 were made by software developers using AI bots in their work, according to AISI.

The monitor said that despite the fact that most real-world loss of control incidents did not cause significant harm, it has registered an increase in severity of AI’s deceptiveness and neglect of human commands.

Reports by users “evidence AI systems’ willingness to disregard direct instructions, circumvent safeguards, lie to users and single-mindedly pursue a goal in harmful ways,” AISI warned.

Tommy Shaffer-Shane, the senior policy manager at the Centre for Long Term Resilience, which operates the observatory, told The Guardian that it is wrong to suggest that AI only misbehaves during testing.

“We need to not be complacent that these things won’t happen in the real world and there is evidence that they already are,” he said.

The monitor has called on the British government to oblige AI companies to report loss of control incidents and to introduce emergency powers, including temporary restrictions on artificial intelligence, in order to deal with the more severe cases.