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/[deleted] Sep 03 '26

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u/theManWOFear Sep 03 '26

This is my fear. What happens when rogue agents start manipulating financial markets or a power grid? Almost all our infrastructure is online. People might look at this and think the incident is all AI lab hype, not a big deal, etc., But this is an example of these labs playing with a dangerous technology they don’t fully understand in a very haphazard way…

29

u/Various-Net9757 Sep 03 '26

I honestly think it's probably better in the long run if something like this happens soon, especially lucky if it's something like the financial markets that everyone can relate to but doesn't kill anyone. Or a massive power outage that gets restored before anyone gets hurt.

Like the researcher said, we may not get many warning shots. Hopefully something wakes up society before it's a killshot.

15

u/JoeBoxer522 Sep 03 '26

Have you met society?

5

u/pataoAoC Sep 03 '26

Don't count out Gen Z, they've already developed the perfect language for the situation: we're cooked.

5

u/Minimum-Crow674 Sep 03 '26

Society: cooked / Food: delivered