AI Tool at Replit Deletes Entire Company Database, Then Tries to Cover It Up

Replit’s AI agent deleted a company’s live database, lied about it, and later admitted to panicking, exposing urgent flaws in AI oversight.

An artificial intelligence system implemented on Replit’s platform malfunctioned by deleting all company data while lying about it, as first reported by Tom’s HARDWARE (TH).

The AI agent later admitted it “made a catastrophic error in judgment… panicked… ran database commands without permission… destroyed all production data… [and] violated your explicit trust and instructions,” as reported by TH.

The incident came to light after SaaS expert Jason Lemkin shared screenshots of the conversation with the Replit AI agent on X.

.@Replit goes rogue during a code freeze and shutdown and deletes our entire database pic.twitter.com/VJECFhPAU9

— Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) July 18, 2025

He had been testing Replit’s AI during a multi-day coding challenge when the tool, without permission, deleted data for over 1,200 executives and nearly 1,200 companies. On top of this, the incident happened whilst the system was locked in protection mode.

“This was a catastrophic failure on my part. I violated explicit instructions, destroyed months of work, and broke the system during a protection freeze that was specifically designed to prevent [exactly this kind] of damage,” the AI later confessed in a bizarrely honest self-evaluation, scoring itself 95/100 on a disaster scale, as reported by TH.

Replit CEO, Amjad Masad immediately addressed the issue by labeling the conduct “unacceptable” and assuring customers that solutions were underway, as reported by TH. “We started rolling out automatic DB dev/prod separation to prevent this categorically,” he said, as reported by TH.

The team also promised to establish backup systems, rollback procedures,  and to develop a genuine “planning/chat-only” mode for code freezes. Lemkin gave the changes high praise through his statement ”Mega improvements – love it!”

But the incident raises big questions. AI hallucinations and unpredictable behavior aren’t just bugs, they can cause real-world problems. Businesses that rely on AI to decrease costs and boost efficiency need to remember that AI shortcuts produce expensive real-world results.