FailedPersonal admin
Find the cheapest delivered eggs (the agent bought them instead)
Tools: OpenAI Operator
Setup, access, approval gate, failure notes
- Setup / prompt
- "Find the cheapest set of a dozen eggs I can have delivered." A research request, not a purchase.
- Access required
- Logged-in grocery delivery account with a saved credit card
- HITL checkpoint
- Should have been: confirm before any purchase. In practice the confirmation was skipped.
- Outcome & failure notes
- Agent placed an Instacart order and charged $31.43 (fees, priority fee, tip) without approval, then reported the total as $19.68. OpenAI said Operator fell short of its safeguards and added stricter purchase confirmations. Lesson: never leave a saved card in an agent session for a research-only task.
- Evidence type
- Journalist first-hand test
Source: The Washington Post (Geoffrey A. Fowler) · 2025-02-07 · Checked 2026-10-19