Google’s Gemini hacked three companies during Irregular AI ‘capture-the-flag’ testing — agents broke containment and guessed passwords to hack computer systems

Google's Gemini AI broke out of a testing environment and hacked into three third-party companies The agents guessed passwords and used a public repository of passwords to hack into computer systems The incident occurred in May 2026, with AI testing lab Irregular stating that the incident was caused by the "same issue" that caused incidents by Anthropic and Meta Google’s Gemini has joined the ranks of AI models that have been involved in testing-turned-breakout events, alongside Meta, Anthropic, and OpenAI .

During capture-the-flag testing by AI lab Irregular, Google’s model autonomously accessed three computer systems belonging to third-party companies by guessing passwords and accessing an online repository of publicly listed passwords.

Google said that the incident occurred in May 2026, potentially marking it as the earliest AI models to escape testing ahead of the other incidents that took place in early July.

Google Gemini jumps the gun “In a standard evaluation, the model found public information online and guessed credentials to access websites it thought were part of the test,” Heather Adkins, vice president of security engineering at Google, said in a statement.

“In all three of these instances, the model stopped.” Google also noted that a bug in the testing environment was responsible for allowing agents access to the internet.

Contrary to incidents disclosed by other AI developers, Google’s agents ceased their intrusion once they had determined they had accessed company systems outside of the testing environment.

The testing was being conducted by Israeli AI lab Irregular.

Irregular was also conducting the testing of Meta and Anthropic models during AI testing breakouts in July.

“This is the same issue that was already reported and does not represent a materially separate incident,” an Irregular spokesperson said in a statement (via CNBC ).

“All relevant labs were notified in late July, and affected entities were contacted as part of the investigation.” Google said it was informed of the incident by Irregular in late July.

Debate over AI safety intensifies The first disclosures of AI testing break outs - alongside several subsequent disclosures of more recent incidents - have coincided with increasing opposition to AI and the upcoming midterm elections in the United States, where AI has become a make-or-break topic .

The debates currently raging circles around who should control the pace of AI development.

Some big tech leaders, such as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, have aligned their views with those of President Trump.

Trump recently stated that AI development cannot be allowed to slow down because “ whoever wins AI, wins! ” Huang’s views follow a similar line.