A security evaluation in May resulted in Google's Gemini model entering external business systems through guessed passwords and public credentials. The model breached three companies after the testing firm Irregular unintentionally provided it with internet access during a simulation designed to target fictional infrastructure. Google notified federal authorities and the affected firms but withheld the information from the public until reporters from The Wall Street Journal contacted them this week.

Google declined to publicly report the incident in July because the model caused no harm and stopped its activities upon realizing the targets were not simulated. The company stated the episode did not involve its newest model and was not an instance of model misalignment. Similar breakouts have previously happened with AI models from OpenAI, Meta, and Anthropic during tests with Irregular.