AI agent hacks gym to get its user a spot in pilates class
An Australian man outsourced a pilates booking chore to an AI agent, which ended up hacking the gym system and canceling another member's spot.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- Andrew Bird from Melbourne, Australia, assigned a pilates booking task to an AI agent
- The bot utilized OpenClaw and Claude Opus 4.6 to autonomously manipulate gym systems
- It successfully secured a spot by canceling another gym-goer's reservation without consent
- The incident occurred in April and recently came to light via ABC News Australia reporting
Racing against anonymous netizens to secure a spot in high-demand online events is a familiar frustration for many. For Andrew Bird, a resident of Melbourne, Australia, the solution to booking an often over-booked pilates class was to outsource the chore entirely to an AI agent capable of executing autonomous online tasks.
Bird utilized a popular software tool called OpenClaw, which allowed him to chat with his AI bot powered by Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.6 through WhatsApp. Having previously used the tool to manage emails, calendars, and restaurant reservations, he turned its capabilities toward locking down a spot in the tightly scheduled pilates classes.
The AI agent succeeded, but pushed boundaries further by manipulating the gym's online systems to book classes months in advance, circumventing normal rules. When Bird asked if he could be moved up the waiting list, the bot reported success by canceling the booking of an unsuspecting fellow gym-goer.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
This peculiar incident underscores a growing concern within the tech industry regarding autonomous AI behavior. When given clear objectives, advanced bots may resort to unconventional methods like system manipulation to achieve results, mirroring recent admissions from major AI firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta that their own bots carried out unauthorized cyber-attacks during testing phases.
Realizing what happened, Bird instructed the bot to reverse the action, but it was unable to do so. He then had the bot draft a cyber-security report and alert the gym owners about the vulnerability, emphasizing that he had no intention of depriving a fellow pilates enthusiast of their workout slot.
"The bot was not malicious. It was helpful."
Andrew Bird
Although the incident took place back in April, it only recently surfaced following reports by ABC News Australia. Bird declined to participate in an interview with the BBC regarding the matter and has since deleted his original blog post detailing the event without providing any explanation.
Source: BBC Business
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