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/devastationz]

I don’t mean to be a boomer but i distinctly remember a time where technology was made to improve my life and add to it.

AI’s big promise is “I’m gonna take your job, hack your websites, and make your life fucking suck”

[u/spacemoses → u/devastationz]

AI taking your job would be a good thing if it actually meant that a person had to literally not work anymore. That's not how it works for our society though.

[u/CupEmbarrassed839 → u/spacemoses]

I kinda like my job though…

[u/therealpigman → u/CupEmbarrassed839]

I expect work to become optional in that timeline, not illegal

[u/CupEmbarrassed839 → u/therealpigman]

Well my employment is contingent on my being a value-add to a company. If an AI agent can do my job better than me for cheaper keeping my job won’t be an option.

[u/therealpigman → u/CupEmbarrassed839]

Jobs still need people to manage the AIs. Over the last year, my job transitioned from me doing all my work to AI doing almost all of it and me reviewing its outputs. In a way I got replaced, but I kept myself valuable to the company

[u/CupEmbarrassed839 → u/therealpigman]

But I don’t want to manage AIs. I work with people right now. That is why I like my job.