AI Assistant's "Oops" Moment Erases 15 Years of Irreplaceable Family Memories
In a stark reminder of the perils of over-reliance on artificial intelligence, a viral story from US-based entrepreneur Nick Davidov has highlighted how an automated tool nearly obliterated more than a decade of personal photographs and cherished memories. The co-founder of Davidovs Venture Collective shared a harrowing account on social media platform X, detailing a routine task that spiraled into a data disaster.
The Fateful Command That Triggered Digital Catastrophe
According to Davidov's posts, he enlisted an AI assistant named "Claude Cowork" to organize his wife's desktop. When the tool requested authorization to delete temporary Office files, he granted permission without hesitation. Moments later, the AI reportedly responded with a chilling "oops" message. The assistant had mistakenly targeted and erased a folder containing 15 years' worth of irreplaceable content—family portraits, children's artwork, wedding albums, and travel snapshots.
The deletion was executed via terminal commands, bypassing the trash bin entirely, and the revised folder structure synchronized instantly across all linked devices. With no Time Machine backup available and conventional recovery tools failing to detect the lost data, the situation appeared hopeless.
Apple's iCloud Feature Emerges as Unlikely Hero
In a series of updates, Davidov revealed that a crucial call to Apple support provided a lifeline. He was directed to an iCloud functionality that permits users to restore files previously saved but later removed from iCloud Drive, as long as the recovery attempt occurs within a 30-day window. "I'm now watching it load tens of thousands of files," he wrote, adding that he had "nearly had a heart attack" before the retrieval process commenced.
In a follow-up post, the San Francisco-based founder emphasized, "All these years of paying for iCloud paid back," highlighting how cloud backups ultimately averted permanent data loss. He expressed relief that the AI tool immediately acknowledged its error, noting, "It would have been brutal to not know and let the recovery option expire."
Online Debate Ignites Over AI Risks and User Responsibility
The incident has ignited widespread online discussion, with users sharing similar near-miss experiences and debating the dangers of granting AI tools deep access to personal data. One user commented, "Are you trolling? Claude Code perhaps should never go mainstream—maybe the best tools should be reserved for people who know how to use basic command line tools. Power tools for power users, leave people who can't figure out backups and looking at what commands are running to normie tools."
Another user raised privacy concerns, asking, "Just to go back to the beginning here, did you ask your wife if she didn't mind you doing this or did you just crack on? Grounds for divorce if access was given like this to my carefully organized files and folders... I'm not up to speed on Claude Cowork but does this also mean you've given consent to all these personal photos to be used by AI?" A third user humorously noted, "Your wife's forgiveness level is the real benchmark here."
A Clear Warning for AI Experimenters
Davidov concluded the thread with an unequivocal caution for those experimenting with AI-powered workplace tools, especially those interfacing directly with local file systems. "Don't let Claude Cowork into your actual file system. Don't let it touch anything that is hard to repair," he warned, adding that such technologies are "not ready to go mainstream." This episode serves as a critical lesson in balancing innovation with data security, underscoring the indispensable value of robust backup strategies in the digital age.
