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Anthropic's Claude stocked a fridge with metal cubes when it was put in charge of a snacks business

If you’re worried your local bodega or convivence store may soon be replaced by an AI storefront, you can rest easy after Anthropic's Claude AI had a hard time of running a mini fridge business.

Anthropic recently concluded an experiment, dubbed Project Vend, that saw the company task an offshoot of its Claude chatbot with running a refreshments business out of its San Francisco office at a profit, and things went about as well as you would expect. The physical restocking of the mini fridge was handled by Andon Labs, an AI safety evaluation firm, which also served as the "wholesaler" Claudius could engage with to buy the items it was supposed to sell at a profit. When Claudius was told it couldn't possibly do that — on account of it having no physical body — it repeatedly contacted building security, telling the guards they would find it wearing a navy blue blazer and red tie.

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