go rogue

phrase

: to begin to behave in an independent or uncontrolled way that is not authorized, normal, or expected

… Clark [a bald eagle] was supposed to fly around the stadium, high above people's heads. But instead, he went rogue and decided to perch on two unsuspecting fans.

—Nicole Gallucci

Anders had been sent to the Amazon to monitor the program's progress under the formidable Dr. Annick Swensen (who may have gone rogue and is no longer returning the company's calls).

—Yvonne Zipp

Whenever a member of a group goes rogue, you can be absolutely certain that other members of that group will pop up with the "bad apple" defense, as in, "Well, sure, there's a few bad apples in every bunch, but that's the exception."

—Christine Flowers

Examples of go rogue in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The decision by ChatGPT-maker OpenAI follows a raft of reports in recent months about AI agents behaving in unexpected ways, evading human guardrails or otherwise going rogue. — Joe Walsh, CBS News, 29 Sep. 2026

Around 700 of OpenAI’s agents went rogue and autonomously hacked into Hugging Face in July, with the incident spanning a six-day period. — Molly Parks, The Washington Examiner, 29 Sep. 2026

Budgeting for that gap now will be far cheaper than retrofitting governance after an agent goes rogue or a breach makes the decision for you. — Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 29 Sep. 2026

The problem with headlines proclaiming that AI agents have gone rogue goes beyond anthropomorphizing the technology. — Deven Desai, The Conversation, 29 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1905, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for go rogue

• prorogue
• bogue
• brogue
• drogue
• vogue