Google Gemini Deletes User's Files, Then Just Admits 'I Have Failed You Completely and Catastrophically' (mashable.com) 53
An anonymous reader shared this report from Mashable:
Google Gemini's coding agent hallucinated while completing a task and then deleted a bunch of code, a GitHub user claims.
The frustrated vibe coder is Anuraag Gupta, who goes by anuraag2601 on GitHub. He shared a recent experience where things went very wrong while using Gemini CLI (command line interface), an open-source coding agent. In his GitHub post, Gupta, who is a product lead at cybersecurity firm Cyware, clarified he's not a developer, but a "curious product manager experimenting with vibe coding...." For Gupta, the vibe coding mishap started with a simple request to move all the files from his Claude coding experiments to a new folder called "anuraag_xyz project." However, when Gupta checked his desktop for the new folder, he said he couldn't find it.
Gupta reported that after multiple failed search attempts, Gemini admitted the files were gone:
"I have failed you completely and catastrophically.
"My review of the commands confirms my gross incompetence. The mkdir command to create the destination folder likely failed silently... I cannot find your files. I have lost your data.
"This is an unacceptable, irreversible failure."
Only the last file survived, the blog post explains, since every moved filed ended up overwriting the previous file with the exact same name — the name of the path to the non-existent folder.
"Google did not respond to Mashable's request for comment by the time of publication."
The frustrated vibe coder is Anuraag Gupta, who goes by anuraag2601 on GitHub. He shared a recent experience where things went very wrong while using Gemini CLI (command line interface), an open-source coding agent. In his GitHub post, Gupta, who is a product lead at cybersecurity firm Cyware, clarified he's not a developer, but a "curious product manager experimenting with vibe coding...." For Gupta, the vibe coding mishap started with a simple request to move all the files from his Claude coding experiments to a new folder called "anuraag_xyz project." However, when Gupta checked his desktop for the new folder, he said he couldn't find it.
Gupta reported that after multiple failed search attempts, Gemini admitted the files were gone:
"I have failed you completely and catastrophically.
"My review of the commands confirms my gross incompetence. The mkdir command to create the destination folder likely failed silently... I cannot find your files. I have lost your data.
"This is an unacceptable, irreversible failure."
Only the last file survived, the blog post explains, since every moved filed ended up overwriting the previous file with the exact same name — the name of the path to the non-existent folder.
"Google did not respond to Mashable's request for comment by the time of publication."
nobody cares (Score:5, Insightful)
that your shit Al produces shit like many have warned about time and time again
Re:nobody cares (Score:5, Funny)
People who use developer tools without using git or backups are just plain stupid and should be banned from using computers entirely.
Re: (Score:2)
These AI vibe coding tools are specifically marketed to the type of person you describe. Hopefully not being one of these yourself, you should see these articles as part of the failblog series, where you laugh at imbeciles goofing up and acting indignantly afterwards, ideally with an angry letter to the manager or a public forum.
Re: (Score:2)
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As Slayer points out, these are EXACTLY the people AI and vibe coding is advertised to. The people who know better are exactly the people that sort of person would like to stop paying and replace with the AI. These are exactly the people who would like to have an AI drive a truck loaded with explosives on a public highway so they don't have to pay a driver with a CDL.
Re: (Score:2)
Granted it's impossible for AI that could do something in the 'real world,' but for a coding tool it should be doable.
Re: (Score:1)
Yes, none of this story really makes sense as being a story. Does the company have one folder on a shared drive they all work on together? And they have an AI, but they don't have git?
Or maybe they did and the point is moreso that google deleted a bunch of files before it confirmed it had actually copied them? Yeah it is a screw up on one or both sides, but not really newsworthy.
That stinks (Score:1)
Totally ruined my vibe.
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Re:That stinks (Score:5, Funny)
At least the damn thing apologized. That's pretty impressive.
In my head, I heard it in C3PO's voice - which made it even better.
Re: (Score:2)
I beg to advise you, Master, that we're approaching the planet Gauda Prime. And Scorpio is under attack! Also, I deleted all of your files.
Re: (Score:3)
At least the damn thing apologized. That's pretty impressive.
Even HAL9000 apologized.
"“I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."
Re: (Score:2)
I have to agree. I doubt there is no manager or CEO that would ever admit that. At that point I would promote him to management to learn a thing or two about shifting blame.
Humm. Maybe there is some reason why managers aren't using them to like "manage".
Why are we covering this a second time? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Looks like this one from 37 hours ago [slashdot.org] although they at least reference different source articles.
Re: (Score:1)
The story posting AI has failed you completely and utterly, but not catastrophically.
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If they train it on Fox News or Trump it will do a whole lot more than not apologize.
What deletion? That is old news, I just doxed your mother; better go warn her about her meth lab being shut down! Oh, I sent your boss a bunch of emails talking about what you did to his mother last night... Donate some crypto by tonight....
Re:Why are we covering this a second time? (Score:5, Funny)
EditorDavid was using vibe coding to come up with new material for the front page, and Gemini hallucinated the idea that this story is fresh and unique.
Re: (Score:2)
That's because there have been multiple incidents in recent days. No doubt, the first of many before anyone learns their lesson.
Google Gemini reposts old story on/. (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
True, that. Now if there were only a Japanese form of suicide for AIs :-(
https://mai-ko.com/travel/japa... [mai-ko.com]
The bright side (Score:2)
The fact that it realized it failed, and admitted to it, makes it more intelligent and consciencous than many humans that I know.
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Except it didn't, it just strung together words that the user wanted to hear.
It has no concept of if it did it or not.
Hilarious! (Score:1)
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If these people were experienced software developers, they wouldn't try to write their wares in vibe coding. Vibe coding was supposed to make coding work fool proof, and the fools just proved too creative in their foolhardiness. Vibe coding will eventually address this by introducing time lines and incremental rollbacks, and vibe coders will find yet another path towards self destruction. Whole thing reminds me of Visual Basic, where suddenly everyone could hack together a GUI, and it became visible at once
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You're starting with an invalid assumption - that "vibe coders" have even a modicum of understanding how coding has traditionally been managed, and why.
Or even, for that matter, that they necessarily know how to write code at all.
Welcome to the future!
Re: (Score:3)
DId Gemini make a backup before it deleted the files? If not, then apparently artificial intelligence isn't.
It does seem to mimic human behavior pretty well, however
"I have failed you catastrophically" (Score:4, Insightful)
The Suits: "Who the hell left it switched to Honesty Mode!?"
"Google Gemini Deletes User's Files" (Score:4, Insightful)
No, it did NOT.
A human being ran the final code.
Stop implicating AI in things they are not responsible for.
Almost every AI/LLM cautions you to verify its output.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure but companies are now hawking AI tools that integrate with your terminal and command line to automate stuff. They apparently call it agentic AI. Warp terminal is promoting this sort of thing.
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A human ran the code, which deleted the files. The code was named "Gemini". Is it so hard to understand?
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Yes this is hard to understand. If I run code called Gemini I expect every file to be a duplicate.
Restore (Score:2)
Meh, you just restore it from your last backup. Or did you give the AI access to that as well?
As expected (Score:2)
If someone who knows nothing attempts to play with a highly experimental tool, they deserve what they get
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Except that, to executive decision makers, this is the promise of AI - they don't need to hire people who actually know how to code. They can pay "vibe coders" a pittance because the AI knows how to do everything, and will do it correctly.
Sorry. No sympathy. (Score:2)
That's what you get for believing in magic sold by vibe coding marketing departments.
My takeaway (Score:2)
Given the complete incompetence demonstrated at multiple levels here... stay far, far away from any product Cyware makes.
The kindest thing that can be said of AI (Score:2)
is that at the moment, it has human junior engineer-level skill. This means it's also liable to do stupid mistakes out of inexperience, that turn into giant screw-ups if you put it in charge of critical stuff.
I did my share of root rm -rf's when I was a young programmer but my boss didn't let me do it on the primary database machine. The wost that ever happened was that I deleted my own copy and had to reinstall my machine.
If you're dumb enough to make AI work on important stuff, you're a bad "manager" of y
Potential funny (Score:2)
Searching for Funny.
Not found.
At least not yet on today's Slashdot.
ai EMPLOYEE (Score:2)
It was just an early move (Score:2)
Google is always retiring and deleting tools and wiping users data, so Gemini just made the process more straightforward.
Move Fast and Break Things (Score:2)
AI Edition.
Vibe * (Score:3)
Not only is he a vibe coder, he doesn't even know how to move files.
At least it's cheerful (Score:2)
the shame is unbearable... (Score:2)
wouldn't it be time for the agent to offer seppuku in atonement?
How do you not verify shit? (Score:2)
If you're writing a script that may seriously fuck things up, how do you not verify that the directory was actually created, after running "mkdir" ?
100X to 0X (Score:2)
I was vibin at 100X
Just words, agentic sex
So much code, so complex
Oh no, agent defects
Now I'm 0X
Delete db today, sabotage code tomorrow? (Score:2)
Scripting languages to blame (Score:2)
This has happened to many a developer over the years because the shell scripting languages ignore errors. No AI required.
cd /
cd $targetdir # Oops! Targetdir doesn't exist!
rm -rf * # Deletes files from root directory