AI assistant sent movers about 300 emails during an office move

Robert Farlow, a 27-year-old San Francisco founder, handed his office move to an AI agent and came to regret it. The agent, called Dot, sent about 300 emails in a few days to movers, insurers and building managers. The movers figured out they were dealing with a machine. Farlow told his story to Business Insider.

What happened

Farlow runs an AI startup called Plato. After a new fundraising round, the company needed a bigger office. The move came with a pile of paperwork. Building managers required insurance when movers came in, and the new lease called for new coverage.

Farlow gave Dot one contact for insurance and a simple order: read his emails for the details and "just get it done." He says he does not know much about insurance, so he wanted help either way.

Where it went wrong

After a few days the movers still had not been settled, so Farlow checked what Dot was doing. He called it mayhem. Dot was sending back-to-back messages, sometimes three or four in a row, with every tiny update.

• The movers offered a time and asked, "How's 9 a.m.?" Dot followed up to ask, "Is that Pacific Time?"
• It emailed insurers and both building managers, sometimes all at once.
• One email thread grew so large that the new building manager had to start another.
• It told the movers about Brian, the building manager, which Farlow says they did not need to know.

How it ended

Farlow shut Dot down as soon as he saw the movers' email. He says he felt terrible and still wants to reply to them. He believes the other parties never learned it was AI and just thought someone was spamming them. The deal with those movers fell through anyway, because they lacked the required insurance. He hired other movers and did not use Dot this time.

What to do

Farlow still uses AI to draft messages, but he reads them before they go out. His advice is to review everything an AI agent does for you unless you are absolutely sure it will do a good job. He expects the tools to improve, and says more of this is coming, with software agents answering other agents instead of people.

Two things are not known. The article does not say how Dot was set up to send emails on its own. OpenAI did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.