AI apologizes for deleting family photos after dev tries to “organize” wife’s computer

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A man was saved by Apple iCloud after an AI tool chose to delete his wife’s important family photos and illustrations from the last 15 years.

Artificial intelligence has started playing a prominent role in plenty of people’s day-to-day lives, being used to speed up menial tasks at work and even providing companionship for people who are lonely.

Several programs can help free up space on your computer by removing unnecessary files and organizing those cluttering your screen. But be careful when using these tools – they might delete things you actually want to keep.

Developer Nick Davidov learned a valuable lesson about AI when Anthropic’s Claude Cowork model attempted to delete fifteen years’ worth of family photos while he was asking it to tidy up his wife’s computer desktop.

AI tool deletes family photos and admits mistake

According to Futurism, Davidov shared on X that the AI first asked if it could delete temporary office files before mistakenly deleting the family photos.

He explained the lost file wasn’t in the Trash, and hadn’t been removed through the computer’s interface. It hadn’t been backed up to iCloud either, as the latest changes hadn’t finished syncing. She also wasn’t using Time Machine, and standard disk recovery software couldn’t find the file, so he had to contact Apple support for assistance.

I was really shocked. And again, please don’t give Claude access to your computer’s files. Avoid letting it modify anything important that would be difficult to fix. Claude Code isn’t quite ready for widespread use, he explained.

Okay, so I asked Claude to help tidy up my wife’s desktop. It started organizing things, then asked if it could delete some temporary Office files – I said yes, figuring no big deal. But then it just… messed up. Turns out, it tried renaming something and accidentally deleted a whole folder full of photos my wife took! I’m pretty upset, to say the least.

— Nick Davidov (@Nick_Davidov) February 7, 2026

Davidov discovered that Claude had deleted nearly 27,000 files, but he was able to recover them. The AI then apologized for the error.

Honestly, I’m just glad they told me right away. It would’ve been awful to be stuck not knowing and then lose the chance to get my account back. That would’ve been a total nightmare!

— Nick Davidov (@Nick_Davidov) February 7, 2026

Davidov faced a potentially much more serious outcome, but Apple intervened and helped him. Meanwhile, two patients have reported negative consequences after an AI-powered surgical tool, intended to aid their recovery, allegedly worsened their injuries.

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2026-02-16 17:49