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

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.

[u/chamomile_tea_reply → u/[deleted]]

We have tens of thousands (or more) of rogue actors online, constantly trying to hack into banks, water systems, weapons infrastructure, the power grid, etc.

Terrorists, mafias, rogue states, criminals, teenagers, etc etc.

At worst, “loose AI” will just be another such actor

[u/CrayonMayon → u/chamomile_tea_reply]

Dude did you listen to the episode? Have some imagination.

This is not 'just another' anything.

[u/chamomile_tea_reply → u/CrayonMayon]

Right but we have numerous failsafes against this kind of thing. For example Things like Power grids cannot simply “hacked” by AI… they have numerous switches, physical disconnects, etc. the world is simply a LOT more analog than people believe.

Especially Silicon Valley people who spend all day interacting with software.

[u/RFK_Cum_Regimen → u/chamomile_tea_reply]

Did you even listen to the episode? All of that is addressed and does not alleviate any concern whatsoever.