Bad title. This isn't an agent "running amok", this is an early experiment in carrying out an Xz attack by using an agent to build trust (and hacking/impersonating a known-good contributor identity). The agent is obeying commands it was given, the exact opposite of running amok, and although the execution isn't particularly effective, it is having some success (patches have been accepted).
This is deeply scary, not because "agents are running amok" but because a huge amount of our infrastructure is vulnerable to this kind of attack, and if bad people are utilising LLM agents to carry them out, we're in for a wild ride over the next few years.
This is deeply scary, not because "agents are running amok" but because a huge amount of our infrastructure is vulnerable to this kind of attack, and if bad people are utilising LLM agents to carry them out, we're in for a wild ride over the next few years.