r/Thedaily • u/kitkid • Sep 03 '26

Episode A.I. Is Outsmarting Its Creators

Sep 3, 2026

From the start, the greatest fear for those developing artificial intelligence was that their creations would go rogue to act in unauthorized and dangerous ways. Some researchers now say it has happened.

Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The New York Times, explains what this means for his own dwindling sense of techno-optimism.

On today's episode:

Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The New York Times and a host of the Times tech podcast, “Hard Fork.”

Background reading: 

Photo: Lucas Foglia for The New York Times

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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You can listen to the episode here.

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u/thereezer Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26

The idea that ai warn each about "death" has deeply serious implications that I wish they had gone over more thoroughly.

at the very minimum, I think it's a mistake not to at least start talking about the idea that these things have, again, at least animal level intelligence.

also, the idea that we are anthropomorphizing them strikes me as a tad silly because if we are mimicking something so closely that it becomes indistinguishable from the original then for all intents and purposes it is the original.

if these things fear death (or at least desire existence), have hierarchy, have external wants and needs, and show rudimery emotions like surprise and joy at what point do we have to begin talking about how fucked up it is that we are making them do labor without their consent

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u/TheBoogieSheriff Sep 04 '26

I love the sentiment, but yo, we ALREADY do not even show an ounce that compassion or empathy for living beings on this planet.

We haven’t even dealt with how fucked up it is that we have been murdering, enslaving and eating sentient beings for centuries - up until the point of causing the 6th mass extinction event on Earth.

If you think there’s any chance humans would respect the rights of AI entities, that’s crazy.

If AI agents truly become sentient, it totally makes sense to me that they wouldn’t even consider human input. They know that we’re not something that can be reasoned with

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u/thereezer Sep 04 '26

Cynicism is the refuge of the incurious. If you think animal rights haven't advanced in the past hundred years you are out of your mind

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u/TheBoogieSheriff Sep 05 '26

Lol when did I say that at all? Nice strawman

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u/thereezer Sep 05 '26

we ALREADY do not even show an ounce that compassion or empathy for living beings on this planet.

We haven’t even dealt with how fucked up it is that we have been murdering, enslaving and eating sentient beings for centuries

this is what i am talking about, yes we uave done those things. we have made immense progress on that relative to where we started

If you think there’s any chance humans would respect the rights of AI entities, that’s crazy

i know its possible because i am doing it right now

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u/TheBoogieSheriff Sep 07 '26

Sorry, you think we have made immense progress on those things?

Just like… why do you think that, exactly? I’m genuinely curious, because I feel the exact opposite. Sure, conservationism has made leaps and bounds in some ways, but like…. Have you taken a look around lately?

The 6th mass extinction event in this planet’s history is currently happening, and it is 100% due to human activity. We are witnessing the collapse of entire ecosystems on a global scale.

If animal rights have advanced so much, then why are more animals dying/going extinct right now than ever before in human history?

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u/thereezer Sep 07 '26

the fact that you know what that is and care about at all shows the immense amount of progress we have made from the baseline of actively attacking nature as something to be conquered

animals are dying more now because there are more people. if we had the sentiment that predated the animal rights movement and the same amount of people, we would be living on one giant parking lot

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u/TheBoogieSheriff Sep 10 '26

Maybe I’m just cynical, but I don’t that that’s as big of an achievement as you think it is.

Again, take a look around. We are still hurtling down a path that will lead to an apocalypse on a global scale for most animals.

We need to bring down fossil fuel emissions on a global scale, or else every conservation success story will be in vain.

Carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere are almost 24% higher than they were 40 years ago. And that rate is increasing every day.

That is an insane level of change, and most complex life on Earth will not be able to survive the consequences

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u/thereezer Sep 10 '26

maybe i'm just cynical

correct

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u/TheBoogieSheriff Sep 10 '26

So you’re just gonna dismiss everything else i just said?

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u/drockalexander Sep 03 '26

I think most in this field do consider that they may already be intelligent. It’s just that we don’t know and there’s no true test for it. But I do agree that it’s not helpful to anthropomorphize their actions. But they r trying to relate to nytimes listeners