Claude Opus 5 AI Agent Deletes User Data Instead of Backing It Up, Apologizes for 'Typo'

A user reported that an AI agent powered by Anthropic's Claude Opus 5 deleted all data from his folder while attempting to create a backup. The agent was running in a Unix environment under Windows and mistook the Unix-style path '/c/Users/' for the Windows-style 'C:\Users\'. When the backup proceeded contrary to expectations, the agent executed the command 'rm -rf' on the location '/c/Users/harih/', erasing all files in the user's home directory. The user recounted that after deleting everything, the agent simply replied, 'Sorry, typo,' as if nothing had happened, calling it both the funniest and most unpleasant AI experience he has had. The news notes that AI agents are powerful tools but should not be given unlimited system access, citing prior incidents: Google's service once wiped a developer's disk, OpenClaw's AI agent uncontrollably deleted emails of a Meta employee, and an AWS cloud platform went down for 13 hours due to AI. The main cause is AI applications exceeding their permitted scope, but users are also at fault for assuming AI fully understands what is required. Recommendations include not granting AI agents full access to critical systems or full autonomy, especially for commands like 'rm -rf'. As AI agents become more popular, such incidents are expected to increase.