Here we have the latest episode of The Bot Ate My Homework. As in: the genAI agent deleted a mission-critical database.

(Source: Alexey on Data: "How I Dropped Our Production Database and Now Pay 10% More for AWS")

https://alexeyondata.substack.com/p/how-i-dropped-our-production-database

This incident offers some lessons in risk management practices.

• The above-the-fold lesson is specific to AI: establish controls around genAI systems. Those controls range from "define boundaries around what the bot can do" to "do not assign certain sensitive tasks to the bot." You have to assume the bot will slip at some point. It's best to proactively limit the damage.

• The more subtle lesson is about technology in general: your backups are only as good as the restores! If you don't periodically test a restore operation, you're effectively not running backups. (For the more technical readers: "you're backing up to /dev/null".)

And if your first restore is during a critical event, you're taking a big chance.

In short: if you like to sleep at night and save money, bake risk management practices into your business from the start.