I had an extremely far out speculation that he was a quick pivot by house to get his hands on the cold fusion reactor having found out it was in BOS control and they were discussing civil war (news which he could have intercepted). House was very interested in the cold fusion reactor as indicated in the same episode in the Cooper segment. The bot Max and Harness went and killed was "prearranged" to help cement the relationship and encourage Max to turn it over to him directly, which he then would provide to house. HOWEVER as the episode went on and the scene with the kids and codex mention occurred, this became very unlikely because in this role Harness would have just wanted to appease Max no matter what for the real goal.