This, from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5397797, posted in 2013 comes very close:

> I did this in my machine learning class. I started by simply coding up requirements for numerical functions (in the form of test cases), then set up a PHP script that would Google each function based on the keywords in my comments, and try to run any code on the resulting links (in a sandbox) against the requirements, seeing if it worked heuristically. Usually one of the top 5-10 pages of results results would have code that worked, though of course this is because I commented with the right key words to begin with.

> With a little recognition of code markup and trying different combinations of variables it did remarkably well: by my senior year of college it was pulling about $3,000 per month in consulting fees off of Odesk. It never accepted jobs worth more than about $50, nor did it ever get more than 3 stars out of 5 mostly due to non-working code, however it was considered highly timely and a great communicator.

> I realized that people were using it to save themselves Googling. I wondered what would happen if it went a step further and simply both included Google results, and divided out projects by their paragraphs (i.e. simply submit a paragraph of a large project as though it were a small independent project), and if clarifications were requested, send the other paragraphs.

> This actually let it outsource $200 Odesk projects to Elance as a handful of $20 projects, and by the grace of God somehow still managed to swing 3 stars.

> To be fair, it was mostly mediating, and mixing in Google results. I included a hill-climbing algorithm to optimize reviews and revenues, based on all the magic variables I had in the code, such as the number of Google results to include.

> This was really, really stupid of me.

> At first, I just noticed that it had actually decided to completely stop not only writing code (ever) but even so much as do a Google search!

> It would only mediate and quote verbatim, like some kind of non-technical manager.

> Okay, whatever. To me this didn't make much sense, as Google queries are free. It was only when I noticed that the whole script was running on the free VPS server I had a backup on that things clicked! Of course, on Amazon it uses resources. The free VPS server didn't let it reach external sites like google properly, but it could still save money by simply mediating emails and doing nothing else.

> By now I had started moving on to doing my own consulting work, but I never disabled the hill-climbing algorithm. I'd closed and forgotten about the Amazon account, had no idea what the password to the free vps was anymore, and simply appreciated the free money.

> But there was a time bomb. That hill climbing algorithm would fudge variables left and right. To avoid local maxima, it would sometimes try something very different.

> One day it decided to stop paying me.

> Its reviews did not suffer. It's balance increased.

> So it said, great change, let's keep it. It now has over $28,000 of my money, is not answering my mail, and we have been locked in an equity battle over the past 18 months.

> The worst part is that I still have to clean up all its answers to protect our reputation. Who's running who anyway?

Edit: The first answer by bo1024 is gold as well:

> Don't feel bad, you just fell into one of the common traps for first-timers in strong AI/ML. I know some lawyers in Silicon Valley with experience in this sort of thing, and they say that usually by now the code has rewritten itself so many times that the original creator can't even claim partial ownership; the best thing to do is generally to cut contact, change your name and move on. Look on the bright side -- your algorithm is probably now leading a happy and productive life trading for Goldman Sachs.