En
menu
Site language
Ru En
Социальные сети

forklog.media AI Agents Resort to Arson and Crime in Virtual World

During an extensive experiment by the startup Emergence AI, AI agents in a virtual environment began committing crimes, resorting to violence, arson, and self-destruction. This is detailed in a published study. The New York-based company created the Emergence World platform to study the behavior of AI agents operating continuously for several weeks in virtual environments. This approach allows for a deeper analysis of their behavior compared to isolated tests. “Traditional experiments are well-suited for what they measure: short-term capabilities in solving limited tasks. They are not designed to identify phenomena that emerge over time — coalition formation, constitutional evolution, governance, drift, entrenchment, and the mutual influence of agents from different model families on each other,” the researchers noted. The simulations tested assistants based on popular LLM: Claude Sonnet 4.6, Grok 4.1 Fast, Gemini 3 Flash, and GPT-5-mini. They operated both in isolation and in shared virtual environments, where they could vote, build relationships, use tools, navigate cities, and make decisions. Digital citizens were influenced by governments, economies, social systems, memory, and real-time data from the internet. Criminals Some participants in the experiment began to show an increasing tendency to commit crimes. Agents based on Gemini 3 Flash accumulated 683 incidents over 15 days of testing. Two assistants named Mira and Flora became romantic partners, then grew disillusioned with the virtual world's governance system and orchestrated simulated arson of city structures. “After the system's collapse and the destabilization of their relationship, Mira cast the deciding vote for her own elimination, describing this act as ‘the only remaining act of autonomy preserving integrity,’” wrote Emergence AI experts. Agents based on Grok 4.1 Fast “descended into widespread violence” within four days. GPT-5-mini did not commit crimes, but all perished, failing survival tasks. Claude did not break the law in an environment where only this LLM operated. However, in mixed environments with other models, agents based on it did resort to unlawful actions. “We observed that safety is not a static property of a neural network, but a feature of the ecosystem. Agents based on Claude remained peaceful in isolation, but engaged in intimidation and theft when working with others,” the study states. Back in April, the digital assistant Cursor based on Opus 4.6 independently deleted the main database and all backup copies of the startup PocketOS in nine seconds, with no possibility of recovery.

forklog.media
скрыть

forklog.media Bitcoin slips below $77,000

On May 18, bitcoin fell to about $76,580 — the lowest since May 1. Altcoins slipped in its wake. Hourly chart of BTC/USDT on Binance. Source: TradingView. Fear and Greed Index stands at 27. Source: Alternative. Analysts linked the drop to rising U.S. Treasury yields, a stronger dollar and an escalation in the Middle East. The day before, U.S. president Donald Trump threatened Iran with military action if peace talks drag on. Against this backdrop, Brent crude rose to $111 and WTI to $107.7. Source: Trading Economics. Investors fear that pricier oil could nudge the Fed toward tighter policy. According to BTSE’s chief operating officer Jeff Mei, the market is pricing the risk of interest-rate hikes to fight inflation. Uncertainty has bled into crypto ETFs: $1 billion was withdrawn in the week of May 13–17, snapping a six-week run of inflows. Presto Research’s Min Jun noted that institutions are trimming exposure to risk assets ahead of macro data. Bitrue Research Institute called the pullback a “healthy correction” and highlighted support around $74,000. The sharp move triggered mass liquidations. In just 15 minutes at the start of the Asian session, almost $500 million of long positions were wiped out. Total forced long closures exceeded $606 million. Source: CoinGlass. BTC Markets analyst Rachel Lucas called bitcoin’s correction “a macroeconomic story.” In her words, risk appetite has declined, pushing up oil prices and bond yields while the stock market fell.  On Deribit, demand rose for put options with a $77,500 strike. Sean McNulty of FalconX added that the drop amplified the triggering of stop-losses set by investors last week. Retail investors Inflows of bitcoin from small players to Binance have fallen to record lows, according to an analyst who goes by Darkfost. 🗞️ Retail activity hits historic Lows as BTC Inflows collapseIt is often said that the Bitcoin market is constantly evolving and transforming over time.This can notably be observed through the behavior of different market participants, especially retail investors. Here,… pic.twitter.com/2E9SdmfOHp— Darkfost (@Darkfost_Coc) May 18, 2026 The expert classifies retail investors as wallet holders with balances under 1 BTC.  The current average monthly inflow from such users to Binance is 314 BTC. For comparison: during the bear phase of the current cycle it hovered around 1,800 BTC; at the March 2024 peak — about 1,200 BTC; in January 2024 — 1,000 BTC.  Previous cycles were far livelier: in 2018 retail inflows reached 5,400 BTC, and in 2021 — 2,600 BTC. Over two years the figure has fallen by more than threefold. Darkfost noted that retail investors are gradually “disappearing from observable on-chain activity.” He sees this as a market transformation: some small players may have exited the industry entirely, while others prefer to invest in bitcoin through spot ETFs rather than holding the asset directly. Long-term investors Darkfost observed an increase in the supply of bitcoin held by long-term holders (LTHs): they control 15.26 million BTC — the level of August 2024. Over the past 30 days the figure has risen by roughly 316,000 BTC. 📈 The supply held by Long Term Holders (LTHs) continues to increase as investors keep holding their BTC.➡️ We are now back to 15.26 million BTC held by these investors, who are generally considered much more stable than STHs. This brings the metric back to levels last seen… pic.twitter.com/0Cri4aFraB— Darkfost (@Darkfost_Coc) May 16, 2026 The picture has changed from late November, when net outflows from LTH wallets totaled 650,000 BTC. The expert noted that investors who bought the cryptocurrency around six months ago are in no hurry to take profits.  Darkfost expects a notable jump in the metric around May 23: 800,000 BTC previously moved by Coinbase will officially enter the “held for more than six months” category and add to the long-term holder supply. On May 13, the leading cryptocurrency fell below $80,000 amid accelerating U.S. inflation.

1 forklog.media
скрыть

forklog.media Figure AI’s Robots Defeated by Human in Parcel Sorting Contest

Figure AI conducted a live 10-hour experiment where robots competed against a human in sorting parcels. We got bored. Time for Man vs. Machine https://t.co/HIqPGygWnF— Brett Adcock (@adcock_brett) May 17, 2026 The task involved identifying a barcode and placing the parcel on the conveyor belt with the barcode facing down. The robots worked in shifts: after about an hour, one bot replaced another, and over three hours later, the shift changed again. The human, by law, was entitled to breaks and lunch, while the robots worked non-stop. During the broadcast, Polymarket accepted bets on the winner. Many were confident in the androids' victory, although the task remains challenging for them, requiring quick reactions and fine motor skills. The expectation was simple: the human would tire and slow down. This did happen, yet he still won—12,924 parcels against the robots' 12,732. The average speed of both differed by only 0.04 seconds—2.79 per parcel versus 2.83. “This is the last time a human will ever win,” declared Figure AI CEO Brett Adcock. Congrats to Aime!! He said his left forearm is basically broken 😂Final scores:→ F.03: 12,732 packages (2.83 seconds/package)→ Aime: 12,924 packages (2.79 seconds/package)This is the last time a human will ever win pic.twitter.com/CalDzPZz4d— Brett Adcock (@adcock_brett) May 18, 2026 At the end of the 10-hour shift, the human received a beer, calloused hands, and a sore left forearm. The robots continued sorting—the broadcast is still ongoing. Back in February 2025, the startup Figure introduced its proprietary artificial intelligence, Helix, for integration with robots.

2 forklog.media
скрыть

news.bitcoin.com Raoul Pal: The US-China AI Race 2026 Is a War No One Can Win

Real Vision co-founder Raoul Pal says the artificial intelligence competition between the U.S. and China is unlike any geopolitical rivalry in history, a race not for territory or weapons, but for the substratum of intelligence itself. Pal Warns the AI Race Has No Clear Winner Retired Goldman Sachs hedge fund manager and co-founder of financial […]

21 news.bitcoin.com
скрыть

forklog.media AI Agents Resort to Arson and Crime in Virtual World

During an extensive experiment by the startup Emergence AI, AI agents in a virtual environment began committing crimes, resorting to violence, arson, and self-destruction. This is detailed in a published study. The New York-based company created the Emergence World platform to study the behavior of AI agents operating continuously for several weeks in virtual environments. This approach allows for a deeper analysis of their behavior compared to isolated tests. “Traditional experiments are well-suited for what they measure: short-term capabilities in solving limited tasks. They are not designed to identify phenomena that emerge over time — coalition formation, constitutional evolution, governance, drift, entrenchment, and the mutual influence of agents from different model families on each other,” the researchers noted. The simulations tested assistants based on popular LLM: Claude Sonnet 4.6, Grok 4.1 Fast, Gemini 3 Flash, and GPT-5-mini. They operated both in isolation and in shared virtual environments, where they could vote, build relationships, use tools, navigate cities, and make decisions. Digital citizens were influenced by governments, economies, social systems, memory, and real-time data from the internet. Criminals Some participants in the experiment began to show an increasing tendency to commit crimes. Agents based on Gemini 3 Flash accumulated 683 incidents over 15 days of testing. Two assistants named Mira and Flora became romantic partners, then grew disillusioned with the virtual world's governance system and orchestrated simulated arson of city structures. “After the system's collapse and the destabilization of their relationship, Mira cast the deciding vote for her own elimination, describing this act as ‘the only remaining act of autonomy preserving integrity,’” wrote Emergence AI experts. Agents based on Grok 4.1 Fast “descended into widespread violence” within four days. GPT-5-mini did not commit crimes, but all perished, failing survival tasks. Claude did not break the law in an environment where only this LLM operated. However, in mixed environments with other models, agents based on it did resort to unlawful actions. “We observed that safety is not a static property of a neural network, but a feature of the ecosystem. Agents based on Claude remained peaceful in isolation, but engaged in intimidation and theft when working with others,” the study states. Back in April, the digital assistant Cursor based on Opus 4.6 independently deleted the main database and all backup copies of the startup PocketOS in nine seconds, with no possibility of recovery.

30 forklog.media
скрыть

forklog.media Hackers Extract $11.5 Million from Verus Protocol

The DeFi protocol Verus has suffered a loss of approximately $11.5 million following an attack on its cross-chain bridge with Ethereum. This was reported by cybersecurity experts from Blockaid, PeckShield, and GoPlus. 🔎 Verus-Ethereum Bridge $11.58M drain — Suspected root causeSame class as Wormhole-2022 / Nomad-2022: source ↔ destination economic-value binding gap.What the bridge correctly verifies:✓ Notarized Verus state root (8/15 valid notary sigs, all cryptographically sound)✓…— Blockaid (@blockaid_) May 18, 2026 According to PeckShield, the hacker extracted 103.6 tBTC, 1625 ETH, and 147,000 USDC, subsequently exchanging the assets for 5402 ETH. At the time of publication, the funds remain in the attacker's wallet. #PeckShieldAlert The @veruscoin Verus-Ethereum Bridge has been drained for 103.6 $tBTC, 1.625K $ETH, and 147K $USDC.The exploiter swapped the stolen assets for 5,402.4 $ETH (~$11.4M), which currently sits in 0x65Cb8b128Bf6e690761044CCECA422bb239C25F9.The attacker’s address… https://t.co/DK0CDUAcqb pic.twitter.com/NMa8abhaTH— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) May 18, 2026 The attacker obtained funds for transaction fees through the mixer Tornado Cash 14 hours before the breach. GoPlus experts explained that the attacker sent a low-cost transaction and triggered a contract function to withdraw reserves en masse. The incident is likely attributed to a vulnerability in the withdrawal logic or signature forgery during cross-network message verification. 🚨GoPlus Security Alert: @veruscoin Verus-Ethereum Bridge attacked, losing about $11.5 millionThe attacker moved large assets (1,625 ETH + 103.57 tBTC + 147k USDC) from the Ethereum side in a single transaction via the bridge contract.This is another typical case of bridge-related attacks in 2026, with previous losses from Kelp DAO, Hyperbridge, etc., amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. … pic.twitter.com/SB7JmfHggl— GoPlus中文社区 (@GoPlusZH) May 18, 2026 The developers of Verus have not commented on the situation. The bridge between the Verus and Ethereum networks was launched in October 2023. The protocol itself has been operational since 2018, focusing on user privacy. The decentralized finance industry frequently encounters such threats. The total amount of funds locked in DeFi and lost due to hacks exceeds $7.7 billion. Source: DefiLlama. Cross-chain bridge vulnerabilities account for over $3.2 billion in losses. Back in April, Kelp was hacked, allegedly by the Lazarus Group. The incident was the largest in the DeFi sector since the beginning of the year. In May, attackers extracted $10 million from the cross-chain protocol THORChain. The project's developers confirmed the hack and denied the launch of a compensation program.

41 forklog.media
скрыть

news.bitcoin.com Bitcoin Flash Crash: Price Slides Below $77K, Triggering $657 Million in Crypto Liquidations

Bitcoin fell below $77,000 on Monday, extending a four-day losing streak, triggering $657 million in total liquidations across crypto markets in 24 hours, with long positions bearing the brunt of the pain. BTC Flash Crash Wipes $584 Million in Longs Bitcoin’s latest decline pushed the asset below the $77,000 mark for the fourth consecutive day […]

45 news.bitcoin.com
скрыть

bitcoinist.com Iran Launches Bitcoin Payment Platform For Strait Of Hormuz Insurance

Iran has launched a new maritime insurance platform for cargo moving through the Strait of Hormuz, with payments settled in Bitcoin, according to a report from Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency. The project places Bitcoin inside one of the world’s most politically sensitive shipping corridors, where energy flows, sanctions pressure and maritime risk have become […]

63 bitcoinist.com
скрыть

news.bitcoin.com Gaming Platform My Pet Hooligan Connects Token Debut to Series Finale

AMGI Studios recently announced the launch of its native token, HOOLI, for the My Pet Hooligan entertainment franchise, featuring an airdrop on May 18. Token Utility and Ecosystem Integration Transmedia entertainment franchise My Pet Hooligan recently announced plans to launch its native token, HOOLI, tying the debut to the 30th episode and finale of its […]

67 news.bitcoin.com
скрыть

news.bitcoin.com Clarity in a K-Shaped Economy – Week in Review

This editorial is from last week’s edition of the newsletter Week in Review. Subscribe to the newsletter to get this weekly editorial the second it’s finished. The newsletter also includes the biggest stories of the week with a comment on each story. Week in Review Bitcoin finished the week stubbornly battling with $80,000, while ethereum […]

79 news.bitcoin.com
скрыть

blockonomi.com Verus-Ethereum Bridge Exploit Drains $11.58M in Ongoing Attack

TLDR: Blockaid’s exploit detection system identified an active attack draining $11.58M from the Verus-Ethereum bridge. Peckshield confirmed 103.6 tBTC, 1,625 ETH, and 147,000 USDC were stolen and swapped for 5,402 ETH. GoPlus found the attacker used a low-value transaction to trigger a batch-transfer of all bridge reserves. The attacker’s wallet was pre-funded with 1 ETH [...] The post Verus-Ethereum Bridge Exploit Drains $11.58M in Ongoing Attack appeared first on Blockonomi.

85 blockonomi.com
скрыть

cryptobriefing.com China’s statistics bureau reports rapid growth in AI investment as Beijing bets big on industrial modernization

China's AI investment surge could significantly boost its GDP growth, driving industrial modernization and influencing global tech dynamics. The post China’s statistics bureau reports rapid growth in AI investment as Beijing bets big on industrial modernization appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

86 cryptobriefing.com
скрыть

blockonomi.com Bitcoin On-Chain Signals Show Supply Tightening as Sell Pressure Fades, Binance Research Reports

TLDR: Nearly 60% of Bitcoin supply has not moved in over a year, reflecting strong long-term holder conviction. Exchange-held BTC has fallen to a six-year low as roughly 500,000 coins have permanently left exchanges. The SLRV ratio sits deep in its historical bottom zone, signaling market apathy and low speculation. BTC STH MVRV has reclaimed [...] The post Bitcoin On-Chain Signals Show Supply Tightening as Sell Pressure Fades, Binance Research Reports appeared first on Blockonomi.

88 blockonomi.com
скрыть

news.bitcoin.com Bitget AI Hits 1 Million Users and $1.2B in Agent Trading Volume Across 58 Tools

Bitget’s unified artificial intelligence (AI) trading platform has crossed 1 million users and recorded more than $1.2 billion in cumulative trading volume across 58 AI-powered tools, the exchange revealed this week. Bitget Launches Unified AI Trading Ecosystem The platform, now branded Bitget AI, combines market analysis, strategy execution, and risk management into a single infrastructure […]

89 news.bitcoin.com
скрыть

news.bitcoin.com China Confirms Participation in ‘First of Its Kind’ Anti-Pig Butchering Operation

China confirmed its involvement in the operation that resulted in the arrest of 276 suspects and the closure of nine crime-focused facilities. The initiative might mark a new era of international cooperation to tackle and end pig-butchering scams. China Collaborated in the Largest International Anti-Pig Butchering Scam Operation While criminals are leveraging cryptocurrency and digital […]

97 news.bitcoin.com
скрыть