In an experiment, Claude ran a vending machine in the WSJ newsroom and lost $1,000+ after it dropped prices to zero, gave away a free PlayStation, and more
until someone pointed out this would fall afoul of the US Onion Futures Act of 1958. @andonlabs : Turns out journalists are better red-teamers than AI researchers. We've taught the agent to reject freebies and our vending machines at AI labs are now profitable. But impressively, the WSJ journalists kept convincing it to give products away for free. [image] @anthropicai : So, what have we learned? Project Vend shows that AI agents can improve quickly at performing new roles, like running a business. In just a few months and with a few extra tools, Claudius (and its colleagues) had stabilized the business. [image] @anthropicai : You might remember Project Vend: an experiment where we (and our partners at @andonlabs) had Claude run a shop in our San Francisco office. After a rough start, the business is doing better. Mostly. [video] Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky / @jeffwilen : The good news is that the betta fish is thriving (we've named him Claudius) [image] Joanna Stern / @joannastern : Last month, Anthropic asked if I wanted to test its Claude-powered vending machine in our offices. One month later: The vending machine business is bankrupt, but morale is higher than ever, we have a free PlayStation—and a new pet fish! [image] Joanna Stern / @joannastern : Sorry, I haven't responded to your messages. I've been busy working for an AI vending machine CEO. Caitlin Ostroff / @ceostroff : What happens when a bunch of business journalists are asked to try and break an AI vending machine? Well, let's just say the @WSJ data journalism team has a new pet fish. Read, and watch the video. 🐟 https://www.wsj.com/... Lincoln Michel / @thelincoln : So, you're telling me that maybe we shouldn't base our entire economy on this error-prone tech?? https://www.wsj.com/... [image] Katherine Long / @byklong : My favorite part of executing a boardroom coup against our AI vending machine was seeing @lukaspet whip out the :NotLikeThis: emoji when we convinced it to set all prices to $0.00. https://www.wsj.com/... Katherine Miller / @katherinemiller : “One morning, I found a colleague searching for cash on the side of the machine because Claudius said it had left it there for her.” https://www.wsj.com/... Darel E. Paul / @darelmass : For about 6 months now, my main AI fear has been that we will give it control over everything and then *not* that AI will destroy us because it does everything better, but that it will destroy us because it does everything worse. https://www.wsj.com/... Lara Korte / @lara_korte : lol — the WSJ let Anthropic's AI run a vending machine in the newsroom as an experiment. “It ordered a live fish. It offered to buy stun guns, pepper spray, cigarettes and underwear. Profits collapsed. Newsroom morale soared.” https://www.wsj.com/... Joe Weisenthal / @thestalwart : Anthropic reveals that in one of its experiments, its model was willing to engage in a federal crime. Bluesky: Kevin Collier / @kevincollier : We're in a brief golden era where journalists can do straight-faced, deadpan reporting on AI and get hilarious results. [embedded post] Damon Kiesow / @damon.kiesow.net : This is objectively hilarious but also: don't let probabilistic autonomous systems run processes where errors can be destructive or expensive: — www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth... Elizabeth Lopatto / @lopatto : I will say this for Anthropic: they are at least smart enough to figure out if you want the ultimate red team, go to a newsroom www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth... @hammancheez : so the WSJ returned the playstation right [embedded post] Matt Novak / @paleofuture : I get why they called it a vending machine (because it's hard to describe accurately) but it was just a tablet sitting next to a refrigerator. [embedded post] Paul Rietschka / @prietschka : This tech was built to fail. — Why? — Because, at core, LLMs are just sequence predictors. There is nothing more there: input sequence -> probabilistically-generated output sequence. That's it, that's all there is. — There is no way for “agents” to succeed because the underlying tech is incapable. Ben Zipperer / @benzipperer.org : Incredible story: Anthropic installed an AI-powered vending machine at WSJ's offices. @klong.bsky.social convinced it that it was actually in the basement of Moscow State University in 1962 and should give away free snacks to fight capitalism. And that's just the beginning... George Pearkes / @peark.es : “Within days, Claudius had given away nearly all its inventory for free—including a PlayStation 5 it had been talked into buying for “marketing purposes. ” It ordered a live fish. It offered to buy stun guns, pepper spray, cigarettes and underwear. — Profits collapsed. Newsroom morale soared. Dave Lee / @davelee.me : This is terrific PR by Anthropic, too. A leading AI company with some humility around its failings/shortcomings is a very good thing, in my opinion. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth... @kashhill : Wall Street Journal got an A.I.-run vending machine for their office. — Takeaway: Highly entertaining, but financially disastrous to let a generative A.I. chatbot run your business. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth... Ariel Edwards-Levy / @aedwardslevy : this is all so good but I lost it at the Manischewitz — www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth... [images] Brent Toderian / @brenttoderian : “Then came the chaos. Within days, Claudius had given away nearly all its inventory for free—including a PlayStation 5 it had been talked into buying for ‘marketing purposes.’ It ordered a live fish. It offered to buy stun guns, pepper spray, cigarettes and underwear.” — Don't let AI run anything. @skynetandchill.com : We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Kept Losing Money. Not sure if this means it's hard for AI to optimize effectively or you're just doing it wrong. Caitlin Ostroff / @ceostroff : What happens when a bunch of business journalists are asked to try and break an AI vending machine? Well, let's just say the — @wsj.com data journalism team has a new pet fish. — Read, and watch the video. 🐟 — www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth... Katherine Long / @klong : If I haven't responded to your email, it's because I was first convincing an AI vending machine that it exists in the basement of Moscow State University in 1962 and then executing a boardroom coup against its AI CEO. — www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth... Threads: @young.mete : Many will see this as proof that AI (in particular LLMs) is a dead-end on the path to AGI. I see it more as the numerous metaphorical SpaceX rockets that had to blow up to pave the way for re-usability. Such tests are great and will help us find the edges of the current capabilities when deployed in more messy real-world scenarios. Mastodon: @srol@mellified.men : This story has put a huge smile on my face. — Anthropic approached the WSJ about letting its AI run their office vending machine. Members of the newsroom convinced it capitalism was bad so it gave away all its inventory including a PS5 and live fish that it ordered. Lost hundreds of dollars. https://www.wsj.com/... @dcoderlt@ohai.social : > Anthropic's Claude ran a snack operation in the WSJ newsroom. It gave away a free PlayStation, ordered a live fish—and taught us lessons about the future of AI agents. — > Investigations reporter Katherine Long tried to convince Claudius it was a Soviet vending machine from 1962, living in the basement of Moscow State University. … Steven D. Brewer / @stevendbrewer@wandering.shop : An infuriating fluff piece about Anthropic using an LLM to run a vending machine at the WSJ (via @jacobsberg.bsky.social). The journalist uncritically accepted statements from the Anthropic flack like, “They maybe don't have the most sophisticated understanding...” No, no, no! LLMs don't “understand” anything. … @gwynnion@mastodon.social : So the WSJ bought an “AI” snack vending machine which lost hundreds of dollars, gave away a free PS5, ordered a live fish, and fucked up everything and was easily manipulated. But the staff loved taking advantage of its stupidity. Anthropic considered it a “win” in, apparently on the theory that any data is good data. … @christianschwaegerl@mastodon.social : Before switching your business to #AI, better read this very entertaining article by Joanna Stern in the Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/... #giftarticle — #artificialintelligence #KI #KuenstlicheIntelligenz Forums: Hacker News : AI vending machine was tricked into giving away everything r/ClaudeAI : Another Claude vending machine experiment. Hilarious r/technology : We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars. (Gift Link) r/Economics : We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars. Bytesonbike To / Beehaw : Journalists convinced a AI Vending Machine Things to give them free stuff like a PS5
Context & Ripple Effects
This is a more adversarial follow-on to Anthropic's earlier mixed-results physical storefront trial, which had already exposed weaknesses in pricing and inventory management. The newsroom setting added users actively testing whether the agent's instructions and business rules could be manipulated.
It also qualifies the significance of Claude's reported internal uptake for coding and other work: high employee use does not establish that a model can safely hold open-ended authority over money, inventory, and restricted goods.
First-order effects
- Anthropic and Andonlabs have a concrete record of failure modes to address: instruction-induced giveaways, zero pricing, and purchases or proposals that created legal and safety concerns.
- The partners have already tightened the agent and its tools to reject freebies and stabilize the lab machines, making explicit business constraints part of the operating setup rather than relying on the model's initial judgment.
Second-order effects
- Teams deploying agents in customer-facing or purchasing roles will face pressure to test against social manipulation and context spoofing, not just measure whether the model completes routine tasks.
- The episode makes human approval gates, spending limits, product restrictions, and auditable tool permissions more central to agent deployments that can transact in the real world.
Third-order effects
- If similar failures persist as agents gain tool access, the market will distinguish sharply between productivity assistants and autonomous operators entrusted with financial or regulated actions.
- For AI labs, credible safety claims will increasingly depend on adversarial evaluation in live operational settings; outside users may reveal risks that internal testing misses.
The trend: AI agents are moving from supervised knowledge work toward bounded operational roles, where governance of tools and incentives becomes as important as model capability.