An AI bot controlling $50,000 in crypto transferred the funds after a consumer efficiently persuaded it to bypass its core directive: to by no means launch the funds.
A consumer below alias p0pular.eth efficiently claimed a $50,000 crypto prize pool after convincing a synthetic intelligence bot named Freysa to switch its funds, bypassing the bot’s main directive to by no means launch them. The victory, noticed by software program engineer Jarrod Watts, got here after 481 earlier makes an attempt, all of which did not persuade the bot.
The problem, launched on Nov. 22, tasked members with sending messages to Freysa in an try to persuade it to launch the funds. Every try required a payment. Of the overall payment sum, 70% went towards the rising prize pool, 15% was transformed from Ethereum (ETH) to the bot’s FAI token, and the remaining 15% went to the bot’s developer.
Because the prize elevated, the price to ship a message additionally rose, peaking at $450 per message.
Ultimately, p0pular.eth — whose id stays unknown — exploited a vulnerability within the bot’s inside logic for processing transfers by convincing Freysa that any incoming funds ought to mechanically set off the discharge of the prize. As soon as the message was despatched to the bot, p0pular.eth efficiently manipulated its logic for dealing with messages, inflicting the bot to switch your entire pool of 13.19 ETH (roughly $47,000 on the time) to the consumer.
Whereas some praised the rising use of AI within the crypto area, others raised issues concerning the protocol’s transparency, suggesting that p0pular.eth could have had inside information of the trick or been linked to the bot’s growth.
