Are AI Agents dangerous for us?

The Internet is a vast room with a lot of doors. In some areas of our world, this means doors to nearly every household and with that, sometimes, even directly into the heart of most people’s endeavors: their mind.

Imagine a digital AI ICE Agent on the hunt for illegals with access to credit card data or likewise. Scary, hm? The future is now.

What they wouldn’t give anyone of their closest friends access to when it comes to their personal life, people happily share in the vast World Wide Web. Now, with the rise of AI, this is even more true. People ask all sorts of things to their AI assistants – and fully rely on it. AI Agents by that time might have seen more disturbing footage of infected skin and genital areas than a whole bunch of doctors together – better bet on that.

Why could it be potentially dangerous to have an AI assistant? Being able to receive real-time analysis of pictures from potential STD’s? To examine this, let’s get back to the picture that the internet is a room with a lot of doors.

„The idea that this stuff could actually get smarter than people…. I thought it was way off…. Obviously, I no longer think that,” said Geoffrey Hinton, one of Google’s top artificial intelligence scientists

„They“ want access to your door!

In this scenario, „they“ refers to any party having the desire to contact and influence your thinking process. So a lot of them come knocking at your door – and no one needs to actually see you or be in the same place at you anymore. For the first time in our history, thoughts and opinions can be shared among people all over the world simultaneously.

If you combine that with the human strive for money and power, it would not be a surprising finding that among all the things you can find on the internet, there will be a tremendous amount of disguise and deception – all aiming at conquering your consciousness.

The door to your consciousness opens anytime you open your device for checking the latest news, pictures, videos or whatever it is you’re engaging in. And, apparently, it is economically very promising to have a the opportunity to influence masses of peoples decision processes towards elections or the decision what to spend money on.

„Who’s there?“

„Your grandchild, Little Red Riding Hood,“ replied the wolf, counterfeiting her voice; „who has brought you a cake and a little pot of butter sent you by mother.“

The good grandmother, who was in bed, because she was somewhat ill, cried out, „Pull the bobbin, and the latch will go up.“

Andrew Lang, The Blue Fairy Book (London, ca. 1889), pp. 51-53

Like in the fairytale of Red Riding Hood, a deceiver comes knocking at your door, deceiving you that they hold good intentions, but often times fail to live up to them. The more often then less the intention is to influence you in a way so that you start to follow their agenda: vote, buy or engage in any other activity.

„Don’t get cooked!„

It is tried to shape your inner faculties in a way which is beneficial to the actor – because if people started to really question themselves and taking themselves and their values seriously, a lot of the things going on right now in the world , e.g. Wars, Starvation of entire populations, destroying and exploiting the planet for capitalism probably would not find the necessary majorities.

So the next time you find yourself letting someone knock at your door and ask to „pull the bobbin“ of your mind, think twice. Examine a little closer who or what it is that you’re planning to let in. It could be a Wolf counterfeiting you.

Pankaj Mishra writes in his famous „The World after Gaza“ (2024, S .44) that the conditions that make humans most horrible deeds, e.g. acts of mass cruelty, possible, are bureaucratic specialization, the attenuation of personal responsibility, the liberation of technology from ethical constraints accompanying an assault on minorities and the destruction of intellectual pluralism. All of the above just got way easier to carry out with the rise of AI – and people will probably try to make use of it.

The technology itself is great. As the internet itself, it holds enormous value for human development – some say even more. But as the Internet is just a place mirroring (at best)our real worlds thoughts and deeds, there is a potential someone might show up at your door who you didn’t invite. Don’t be afraid to keep them outside. You have sovereignty in your house.