Monday, May 11, 2026
It happened to me.
But first, let me get you up to speed:
A few months ago, an autonomous AI agent called OpenClaw went viral because you could chat with it on WhatsApp or Telegram and get it to do all kinds of stuff on its own.
For instance:
One guy’s OpenClaw purchased a phone number via Twilio and then used OpenAI’s text-to-speech model to literally call his owner on the phone.
Imagine answering your phone and finding out it’s your AI.
Has nobody here seen Terminator??
Lol
Anyhow:
Experts were quick to point out this open-source software was practically Swiss cheese when it came to security vulnerabilities…
Hackers could easily prompt inject it and get it to reveal bank accounts, passwords, etc.
Plus:
It’s not exactly bulletproof when it comes to following instructions.
In possibly the most ironic twist I’ve ever heard…
Meta’s director of AI alignment revealed that her OpenClaw went rogue and deleted 200+ emails from her inbox despite explicit instructions not to.
As you can imagine, this was catnip for the news media.
The headline writes itself.
I had a good chuckle about it myself….
… Then came yesterday.
I was busy working away on a redesign of the user interface for ESS AI, when suddenly…
It happened.
Instead of UPDATING the environment variables for my software…
Claude Code replaced 60+ of them with the ONE new one I was trying to add.
Which sent me into a mortal panic.
As it immediately disabled a variety of core functions…
And forced me to spend the next 2 hours frantically cobbling them back together since I didn’t have them all saved anywhere else.
Luckily, I was able to do so.
In retrospect, the blast radius could’ve been much bigger.
Nevertheless:
My days of passing judgment on those who’ve fallen victim to similar AI misfortune are over.
A rite of passage, maybe?
Who knows.
Moving on:
If you’d like to profit from my (mis)adventures in the AI salt mines…
Then I recommend you sign up for EmailStoryselling.ai.
Not only will it clone your voice, build your avatar, write your emails, ads, funnels, and a whole lot more…
But I’m also constantly developing and releasing NEW bots to give you even more leverage…
Like the Offer Builder Bot, which I deployed a few weeks ago…
And will help you design, build, and troubleshoot any offer or funnel like a 9-figure consultant…
As well as the Deep Research Bot, which I’m currently tuning before release and am absolutely obsessed with.
The reports this thing produces are insanely detailed and insightful…
They allow you to penetrate pretty much any topic in minutes…
Whether it’s researching a new market, studying a new tactic, or surfacing your competition.
All in all, ESS AI is basically a world class marketing department in a box.
Monthly plans start as low as $49/m.
Tap here to check it out:
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Jim Hamilton
Learn how to build a profitable daily newsletter with Email Storyselling. Read by 5,000+ subscribers.