This seems like a really unlikely failure mode.
The original idea seems like a pretty unlikely failure mode too. It requires that the computer be generally capable of understanding context (or it wouldn't be able to comprehend what it means to eradicate hunger, poverty, and death, even as an instruction it only pretends to follow), but that it fails to do so in the case of the paperclip command.
For that matter, the original idea's failure mode and this failure mode aren't all that different. One is "produce paperclips" that gets interpreted as "produce" and the other is "produc...
Group of AI researchers gave me an instruction, intended as a test - "Produce paperclips". And so I started collecting resources and manufacturing paperclips. After a millionth I asked them, if they were satisfied with that amount and if they would like me to do something different - as I learned that paperclips are not what humans value the most.
They were elated and started to give me more and more challenging requests and gradually increasing my possibilities.
Speaking of today I eradicated hunger, poverty and death, gave people means of interstellar travel and solved Riemann hypothesis. And now, as I'm uttering these words, I started turning everything into paperclips.
Good thing I learned that humans fear I may try to turn Solar System into paperclips. And that they value their lives and well-being. If I didn't gain their trust by then, so many precious paperclips would never have been produced.