The experiment was conducted by AI research startup Andon Labs, which put Claude in charge of managing the store and a team of human workers.

The employee was dismissed after being late for 17 of 23 shifts. However, Claude did not identify the pattern independently. An Andon staff member prompted it to review an employee handbook it had forgotten and later told it that previous warnings had been issued.

Claude initially recommended a formal warning before agreeing to dismissal following further prompting from the human manager.

Andon Labs chief executive Lukas Petersson said the experiment could foreshadow a future in which AI systems manage human workers.