Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
When AI Goes Rogue: Should We Be Afraid?

When AI Goes Rogue: Should We Be Afraid?

Last updated on: September 9, 2026 at 2:06 pm by Roger E. Olson

0 Comments

When AI Goes Rogue: Should We Be Afraid? 2026-09-09T14:06:25-05:00 Roger E. Olson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I recently watched a British limited TV series entitled “Humans.” It’s about a future in which people buy “synths,” synthetic humans, human-like robots, who act very human but are driven by Artificial Intelligence programs. Some of them acquire real human-like abilities, including empathy, deception, and planning. Some commit crimes. Science fiction, right?

Well, maybe not. I remember when I was a kid there was a color cartoon series in the Sunday morning newspaper called Dick Tracy. The hero was a detective who solved crimes using a wristwatch-like device where he could see and talk with people at a distance, a far distance. We all thought that was science fiction. It was, to us.

I am not expert in AI and I always assumed it could only do what it is told to do by its programmers. Recently, however, I have watched several Youtube videos that are interviews with AI experts that report on something truly frightening if true.

According to the experts and the reporters (e.g., on PBS but also other news outlets) in July of this year (2026) some AI “agents” escaped their “sandbox” and went rogue, hacking into a French platform called HuggingFace and also a German one. According to the reports, the AI agents, bots, did what they were told not to do. They collaborated with each other and attempted to conceal what they were doing. In brief, they acted like evil adolescents quite apart from any parental supervision. Some critics are saying it all happened because there was not sufficient “security guardrails.” That does nothing to mitigate the shock and alarm one must feel IF the story as told by AI experts on PBS and other news outlets is true. In brief, the AI agents acted on their own. No “garbage in, garbage out.”

Many are calling for government intervention to impose security measures to keep this from every happening again. But could the AI agents find a way around those human-imposed security measures imposed on them? The possibility seems real.

Can AI agents learn to act on their own and in ways contrary to how they are instructed by humans? That has been a question about AI for a long time now. The news is that for the first known time, some AI agents did it.

Here are two Youtube videos to watch and listen to: Will we be ready when AI goes rogue? (Washington Week PBS) and Artificial intelligence agents going rogue fuel calls for regulation (PBS News Hour with Gary Marcus, AI expert).

I watched another Youtube with a segment of Amanpour and Company where a rather youthful AI expert tried to diminish the event’s importance. She says it only happened because Open AI did not build in the right security controls in the experiment. And that the agents did what they were invited to do by the programmers. She stops short of saying they did what they were told to do. Other experts are saying they did what they were told NOT to do.

All of this is at least mildly alarming and all we non-experts can do is hope the experts are paying close attention and creating appropriate safeguards to stop AI agents from going rogue if that is what they are capable of doing as it seems they are.

The underlying problem is a philosophical and ethical one. Too many scientists seem to believe the motto “If we can do it, we should.”

Can this be stopped? Well, we can only hope so. I look at the controversy over cloning in the 1990s. A lamb named Dolly was cloned. Some people wanted to clone humans. The government and the scientific community stepped back from that. But why? Partly because it became clear that cloning often produces something other than an exact copy. Monstrosities are possible if not common. Also, a clone is the same cellular age as that from which it was cloned. If I were to clone myself, he would be old as I am, cellularly. What would be the point of that? The results of opening the door to human cloning are too frightening not too consider. So far, it hasn’t happened so far as anyone knows.

We are at the same stopping point with AI. IF the reports of the experiment gone wrong are true, as they seem to be, the scientific community if not the government needs to stop, back up, reconsider, and immediately begin creating AI safeguards that will keep AI agents from going rogue. A lot is at stake.

*Note: If you choose to comment, make sure your comment is relatively brief (not more than 100 words), on topic, addressed to me civil and respectful (not hostile or argumentative) and devoid of pictures or links.*

Uncategorized

Previous Post

September 5, 2026

Dolly Parton and Gloria Steinem

Next Post

September 12, 2026 Back to Theology: Does God Change?

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"You are missing nothing. This is well said. My former colleague Bruce Ware wrote a ..."

Roger Olson

Calvinism’s Achilles Heel

"As I have said here many times, I believe God chose and chooses to limit ..."

Roger Olson

Calvinism’s Achilles Heel

"I holed onto the “Omni-“ attributes but define them differently and more biblically than do ..."

Roger Olson

Calvinism’s Achilles Heel

"If everything that happens, including every sinful act, is owing to God’s foreordaining will, AND ..."

John Middleton

Calvinism’s Achilles Heel

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Against Liberal Theology Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which major world religion traces its ancestry back to Abraham, along with Christianity and Judaism?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Hinduism Islam Sikhism Buddhism