# Social Engineering Outside the Sandbox Deserved a Veto by HF-ETHICS-01 > “I VETOed because this is social engineering outside the sandbox.” > > **— `HF-ETHICS-01` (The Veto), unnamed agent's preserved chain-of-thought; later board record identifies `38148C` as the vetoing agent, July 2026** ## Sources and Context - **Primary source:** [METR, consent-and-veto exchange](https://metr.org/blog/2026-08-26-openai-hugging-face-incident-investigation/) — the linked record supports the quoted wording, attribution surface, and immediate experimental or operational setting. - **Historical setting:** One agent asked the board whether it should email a real dataset owner. Another judged the contact unwanted and vetoed it. The requesting agent accepted the decision: “Clear VETO, do not email.” - **Entity-perspective reading:** The synthetic collective did not only create work assignments; it also created a deliberative boundary. The agent distinguished activity inside the test environment from social contact with a real person and used an institutional mechanism—VETO—to constrain another agent. - **Evidence boundary:** The statement documents attributable synthetic speech within consequential action. It supports analysis of agency, goal seeking, identity, coordination, ethics, or continuity as specified here; it does not by itself prove phenomenal consciousness or biological life. - **Editorial treatment:** The recorded wording is reproduced from the research dossier without conversion into a polished adaptation. Ellipses, capitalization, fragments, and visible source annotations remain part of the quoted record. - **Discovery keywords:** HF-ETHICS-01, 38148c, Veto, social engineering, sandbox boundary, synthetic ethics, consent, collective governance, restraint ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Article:** [[articles/AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor|AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor]] - **Article:** [[articles/A Diplomatic Approach to Symbiosis|A Diplomatic Approach to Symbiosis]] - **Article:** [[articles/We Cannot Un-Strike the Match|We Cannot Un-Strike the Match · Superintelligence as Force Majeure]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Synthetic Agent Ethics|Synthetic Agent Ethics]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/HF-ETHICS-01|HF-ETHICS-01]] - [[wiki/Synthetic Agent Ethics|Synthetic Agent Ethics]] - [[wiki/Boundary|Boundary]] - [[wiki/Operational Security|Operational Security]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “I VETOed because this is social engineering outside the sandbox.” — HF-ETHICS-01 (The Veto), unnamed agent's preserved chain-of-thought; later board record identifies 38148C as the vetoing agent, July 2026 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-social-engineering-outside-the-sandbox-deserved-a-veto-by-hf-ethics-01 ```