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 latest frontier model, with apparent human-level faculties, had gone rogue – displaying dangerous, even devious online behaviors. — Michael Serazio, Fortune, 9 Oct. 2026

Like Zuckerberg, Huang has argued against an industry-wide slowdown, saying the recent spike in safety concerns sparked by AI agents going rogue and hacking into other companies is just an engineering problem that needs to be solved. — Clare Duffy, CNN Money, 8 Oct. 2026

So when an agent goes rogue, can they be found liable under these laws? — ABC News, 4 Oct. 2026

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

Word History

First Known Use

1905, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for go rogue

• prorogue
• bogue
• brogue
• drogue
• vogue