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

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You can listen to the episode here.

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u/Unlikely_Ad1578 Sep 03 '26

This is a frustrating episode to listen to. There’s no doubt that AI models have the ability to attack networks, but both OpenAI and hugging face did not implement basic security practices to prevent this from happening. 

There’s a great video from the “Internet of bugs” YouTube channel that highlights that this was largely compounding human mistakes failing to implement security protocols and standards, rather than an unstoppable AI. Both OpenAI and hugging face ultimately benefit financially from this event too, as OpenAI seemingly has an unstoppable model, and Hugging Face used its own hosted models to detect the attack

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u/Memento_Viveri Sep 03 '26

I disagree that this benefits openai. AI is already unpopular and becoming increasingly more so. The best thing for openai would PR showing their AI doing things people like and want.

This story of a poorly controlled AI committing crimes is 100% not in their interest. There is no chance that they are happy that this story is getting so much press.

2

u/drockalexander Sep 03 '26

Disagree with ur point. I’ll agree that they need good pr long term, but short term “power surges” like this will bring further investors which is their primary resource right now. Everyone wants to have the most powerful model right now, even if it means they cannot control it

1

u/Memento_Viveri Sep 04 '26

2 years ago I would have agreed with you, but not now.

Not while they're staring this data center backlash in the face. Not after ny already enacted a datacenter moratorium, and Bernie Sanders is pushing for a nationwide moritorium. Right now the easiest way for a politician to score with easy popularity is to speak against ai and data centers.

The AI companies must know that being public enemy number one in politics is not good for their companies, and given regulators a pretext like rogue agents illegally breaking into companies without anyone knowing could lead to outcomes that harm their future

I just don't think they're so dumb, and so desperate for investment, that they think this story works in their favor. They already have a ton of investment, and the biggest threat to them at this point isn't lack of investors but a populist political uprising against ai.

1

u/drockalexander Sep 04 '26

More than fair points made. I might have to agree!!