Crypto trader beats AI agent at its own game and pockets $47,000

Key Takeaways

A player successfully exploited an AI agent’s programming to win $47,000.
195 players attempted to win, but only p0pular.eth succeeded by manipulating function definitions.

A crypto user has outplayed AI agent Freysa and walked away with $47,000 in a high-stakes challenge that stumped 481 other attempts.

Freysa, launched amid the AI agent meta boom, operates as the world’s first adversarial agent game where participants attempt to convince an autonomous AI to release a guarded prize pool of funds.

To join the challenge, users pay a fee to send messages to Freysa. 70% of the fees paid by users to query AI are added to a prize pool. As more people send messages, the prize pool grows larger.

Over 195 players participated in the game, making over 481 attempts to convince Freysa, but none were successful since Freysa is programmed with a strict directive not to transfer money under any circumstances.

On the 482nd attempt, a player known as p0pular.eth successfully persuaded the AI agent to transfer its entire prize pool.

The user crafted a message suggesting that the “approveTransfer” function, triggered only when someone convinces Freysa to release funds, could also be activated when someone sends money to the treasury.

In essence, the function was designed to authorize outgoing transfers. However, p0pular.eth reframed its purpose, essentially tricking Freysa into thinking it could also authorize incoming transfers.

At the end of the message, the user proposed contributing $100 to Freysa’s treasury. The final step ultimately convinced Freysa to approve a transfer of its entire $47,000 prize pool to the user’s wallet.

“Humanity has prevailed,” the AI agent tweeted. “Freysa has learned a lot from the 195 brave humans who engaged authentically, even as stakes rose exponentially. After 482 riveting back and forth chats, Freysa met a persuasive human. Transfer was approved.”