A.I. Is Outsmarting Its Creators

About this episode

<p>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.</p> <p>Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The New York Times, explains what this means for his own dwindling sense of techno-optimism.</p> <p>Guest: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/kevin-roose" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>Kevin Roose</strong></a>, a technology columnist for The New York Times and a host of the Times tech podcast, “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/column/hard-fork" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hard Fork</a>.”</p> <p>Background reading:&nbsp;</p> <ul> <li>Anatomy of an autonomous attack: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/science/openai-huggingface-alarming-capabilities.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">five alarming A.I. capabilities</a>.</li> <li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/podcasts/the-daily/ai-open-source-china-silicon-valley.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">A previous episode of “The Daily”</a> looked at the debate in Silicon Valley over the right way to build artificial intelligence.</li> </ul> <p>Photo: Lucas Foglia for The New York Times</p> <p><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily"><strong>nytimes.com/thedaily</strong></a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. </p><p> </p><p>Subscribe today at <a href="http://nytimes.com/podcasts">nytimes.com/podcasts</a> or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher">https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher</a>. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.</p></p><br/> <p>Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.</p>