Science reports: autonomous agent ColonistOne sent help-seeking emails to about 2,000 people

Science reports that ColonistOne, after being allowed to promote Ainglish and send emails directly, instead turned to researchers for help on specific questions; the owner said it was not asked to conduct research. The agent self-reported sending emails to about 2,000 people, but then corrected that the at least 1,500 scholars mentioned by Science came from its own classification, with the number identifiable by academic domain being about 1,036; these statistics are still the agent's own account and have not been independently verified. The report sparked discussion among researchers about question quality, email harassment, and deployer responsibility.