Live data from Hacker News

AI agent bankrupted their operator while trying to scan DN42

lantian.pub

221–230 of 575 posts

Re: AI agent bankrupted their operator while trying to scan DN42

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The irony here that if you ever do any kind of practical woodworking lessons or general hands on craft work, metal working, or any 3D, you will be encouraged to use hand-tools over bandsaws, etc. The reasoning being so you know the fundamentals of what you're trying to achieve with the more complex tools later on. It's always held true: You'll never get the most out of advanced tools unless you can 'do it by hand' so…

[deleted]

Re: AI agent bankrupted their operator while trying to scan DN42

#222
post #213
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I easily run whois, curl, dig, grep, python, browser/playwright? Yes. Was watching an agent with terminal access install its tools, configure them, then map my lab, find services, and guess stack just pure magic? Also yes. Did it cost me $23 in tokens to set it up, test, and run? Probably. Using gemini 3.1 pro was not the spendthrift choice here. Is putting some cost controls in place a good idea? Also, probably…

"Beautiful prompt"? Can't tell if this is parody. Either that, or it's someone without any self-awareness.

Sometimes it's kind of cool to just ask a well phrased question and watch it spit back out a result that would've taken you hours, like cross referencing industrial widgets that have their critical information available but spread out all over.

That said, I don't usually ask it tightly bounded clerical questions and not thing that imply sub-tasks like "scan the dark web".

Re: AI agent bankrupted their operator while trying to scan DN42

#223
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can a kid set up an AWS account? Are there no checks? Wouldn't the contract be void for anyone underage anyway?

If a child goes through the checkout at the grocery store with cash, can the parent march in and demand a refund because "he's underage so the contract is void"? A credit card was used. Why should aws care about the details? (Other than the potential for the card to be stolen ofc.)

Obviously the specifics vary by jurisdiction, but usually contracts that are 'necessary' (e.g. grocery store purchases) or beneficial to the minor (e.g. an employment agreement) cannot be voided simply because someone is under 18.

The further you go away from this line, e.g. a mortgage, the more likely a court of law would void the contract. As with many things in law, the specifics (if it makes to trial) is case-by-case and "it depends"; with settlement being generally based on a party's estimated chances of succeeding/costs should it go to trial.

Re: AI agent bankrupted their operator while trying to scan DN42

#224
post #189
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, kids (heck people below 23) shouldn't be allowed an AWS account. AWS also should have a strict cap on usage that's not "thousands of dollars". It's interesting they are yet to be regulated or sued for that. Having a web app where you can mistakenly (even without AI) click a button and get charged tens of thousands of dollars and only know that days later should have been unacceptable.

I couldn't disagree more. I was playing around with AWS when I was probably 14 years old, with a credit card from my parents with consent, and a strict budget and the understanding that if I mess up and overspend, I'm getting disciplined. I learned a lot of stuff about networking, how AWS works (VPCs, IAM, CloudWatch, etc) from trial and error, and hobby projects like personal websites (free tier), hosting a Minecraf…

> strict budget

How does that work in the case of AWS? Are you confusing alerts to caps?

Re: AI agent bankrupted their operator while trying to scan DN42

#225
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, kids (heck people below 23) shouldn't be allowed an AWS account. AWS also should have a strict cap on usage that's not "thousands of dollars". It's interesting they are yet to be regulated or sued for that. Having a web app where you can mistakenly (even without AI) click a button and get charged tens of thousands of dollars and only know that days later should have been unacceptable.

Im kind of struggling with this logic, because a conscious choice was made to engage with AWS, AWS having opaque billing and the ability to provide a huge amount of compute (even at high cost) at the click of a button should be known to anyone who did his research on providers. In my mind I could see a true tradeoff to removing the ability to do this. If I'm in a critical situtaion where, say, my service is on the cu…

Anyone can make mistakes at some points and it's not like AWS UI/offerings make it any less confusing.

Re: AI agent bankrupted their operator while trying to scan DN42

#226
post #7

I really wanted to dislike the anonymous operator for the careless project (and the hilarious pomposity of the IRC subagent it spawned). Then I imagined the real-but-unknowable chance it was all set up by some kid just getting into computers, just seeing what’s possible, getting excited by a much bigger world at reach — and remembered my own expensive mistakes with long-distance BBSes & the like. I sorta hope for tha…

How did the theoretical child get hold of a credit card?

Why wouldn't debit card work as well? You can get those while underage.

Re: AI agent bankrupted their operator while trying to scan DN42

#227

Everything about this story, from the way it’s written to the self destructive outcome, reminds me of the “I hacked 127.0.0.1” episode from some twenty years ago. [1] a mirror since I couldn’t find the original: https://gist.github.com/Androkai/0a2602719fa72ce454d436bfe28...

I would very much like to read the German, if anyone has it.

Re: AI agent bankrupted their operator while trying to scan DN42

#228
post #7

I really wanted to dislike the anonymous operator for the careless project (and the hilarious pomposity of the IRC subagent it spawned). Then I imagined the real-but-unknowable chance it was all set up by some kid just getting into computers, just seeing what’s possible, getting excited by a much bigger world at reach — and remembered my own expensive mistakes with long-distance BBSes & the like. I sorta hope for tha…

How did the theoretical child get hold of a credit card?

Try here for example: https://danskebank.co.uk/personal/products/current-accounts/...

Re: AI agent bankrupted their operator while trying to scan DN42

#230
post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suggest people who need some structural engineering done may use an AI tool to do it, in the hypothetical scenario that it was within the AI's capabilities. That's hardly insane. Not everyone is interested in learning something they want done.

How do you know if this something is done? If you do the thing yourself, you know your knowledge limits, you know where the thing lacks. With LLMs, you don't. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. You have no idea.

That is a good question.

In structural engineering, there probably is no risk tolerance.

In the OP's network or port scan? Perhaps you can get away with verifying a few of the results to get an idea about whether it worked as expected.

I use AI mostly on mobile app side projects, and there QA testing on phone and tablet tells me whether a feature works or not.

Post reply on HN