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Log into British Airways and search award availability for me

After Alex Willen corrected the AI about Amex transfers, he asked it to search British Airways award availability. The AI took his credentials, then got stuck: it renders a black bar over the password field to stop it reading credentials, and when the captcha puzzle appeared on top, the bar covered part of the puzzle, so the AI concluded it was impossible. Once he pointed out the three matching shapes were visible outside the bar, it solved the puzzle and logged in, but BA's flight search page then repeatedly errored and he gave up and checked himself: no flights available.

This one went wrong. Read what happened so you don’t hit the same problem.

How it works

  1. Open BA site and request credentials
  2. Black privacy bar over the password field overlaps the captcha
  3. The AI declares the puzzle impossible
  4. User points out the visible matching shapes
  5. The AI solves it and logs in
  6. Flight search page repeatedly errors
  7. User gives up and checks manually

Why it’s worth knowing

The agent's own privacy protection, a black bar over password fields, blinded it to a captcha it could actually solve.

Where it’s from

Summarized from a public post on theautomatedoperator.substack.com. See the original ↗

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