On Monday, a developer using the popular AI-operated code editor cursor saw some strange: Switching immediately logged out them, breaking a common workflow for the programmer that uses many devices. When the user approached the cursor support, an agent named “Sam” told him that it was the expected behavior under a new policy. But there was no such policy, and Sam was a bot. The AI model raised the policy, leading to a wave of complaints and the dangers documented on hacker news and Redit were canceled.
It marks the latest example of AI confusion (also known as “hallucinations”), causing potential business damage. Confusion is a type of “Creative Gap-Filling” response, where AI models inventions admirable-shingles but misinformation. Instead of inventing misinformation. Instead of accepting uncertainty, Ai model gives priority to make surely, frequent, confident, self-confidential reactions, instead of accepting uncertainty, Ai model often gives priority here. Till when it means construction of information from scratches.
For companies deploying these systems in customer-focus roles without human inspection, the results can be immediate and expensive: disappointed customers, damaged trusts, and, in terms of cursor, potentially canceled membership.
How did this reveal
The phenomenon began when a redit user named Brochentosterwen noticed that while swapping between desktops, laptops and a remote dev box, the cursor sessions were unexpectedly finished.
Brokentosterwen wrote in a message, “Logging in cursor on a machine immediately invalid the session on any other machine,” Brochentosterwen wrote in a message that was later removed by R/Cursor Moderators. “This is an important UX regression.”
Confused and frustrated, the user wrote an email for cursor support and quickly received an answer from Sam: “Karsar is designed to work with a device per membership as a core safety feature,” Read the email answer. The response looked certain and official, and the user did not suspect that Sam was not human.
A screenshot of an email from a cursor support bot named Sam.
Credit: Brochentostroven / Redit
After the initial Reddit Post, users took the post as an official confirmation of a real policy change – one that breaks the habits required for the daily routine of several programmers. “Multi-device workflows are table stakes for gods,” a user wrote.
Shortly after, many users publicly announced the cancellation of their membership on Reddit, quoting the non-existence policy as their reason. “I really canceled my sub,” the original Reddit poster wrote, saying that his workplace was now “purifying it completely.” Other people joined it: “Yes, I am also canceling, this is Asin.” Shortly thereafter, the moderators locked the Redit Thread and removed the original post.