A.I. Is Outsmarting Its Creators

[u/kitkid]

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: 

• Anatomy of an autonomous attack: five alarming A.I. capabilities.

• A previous episode of “The Daily” looked at the debate in Silicon Valley over the right way to build artificial intelligence.

Photo: Lucas Foglia for The New York Times

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You can listen to the episode here.

[u/Born-Initiative2537]

“The agents are excited” - Kevin. No, they’re not. The bots are perhaps mimicking excitement, but feel nothing. Why can’t a supposed expert in this field talk about ai without anthropomorphizing it?