No, A.I. agents are not “going rogue” …yet

The idea that it was rogue A.I. agent that hacked into the Medicare system is a convenient cover story for the owners, operators, and users of the technology.

 

Artificial Intelligence as it exists today – by which I mean today, 29th September 2026 – does not have self-determination. Despite appearances, and what certain tech bros and presidents would have us believe, it is just a software program, albeit an extremely sophisticated one.

Like any other software program, it generates a certain output based on certain input. To put it in a more anthropomorphised way, it does what it’s told.

I’ve been teaching computers for over 25 years. What I tell all my students – particularly the ones who are going mad trying to find the ‘make it look good’ button – is to remember the computer is NOT smart. It is a machine. It only knows what it’s told. It only does what you tell it to do, even if you don’t realise you told it to.

That last bit is the crucial part when it comes to understanding what is going on with A.I. right now.

Think of it this way:

Let’s say you’ve just upgraded the door locks in your home. In order to stress-test the new locks, you ask A.I. to try and break in to your home.

Sounds quite logical, right?

The problem is that the request did not include any parameters about testing only the door locks.

A.I. has the ability to test every possible option and outcome – particularly those the user didn’t think of. You instructed it to try to break in to your home and that is what it will do. It will try the doors, the windows, the ventilation, the roof, the floor, the plumbing… If there is any possible way to break in, A.I. will find it because that’s what it was told to do.

Purveyors and evangelists of A.I. talking about recent hacks and infiltrations as if it was a puppy who escaped its pen and went exploring are either disingenuous or criminally naïve.

OpenAI did not say to itself, “I have a nanosecond to spare. I think I might see if I can have a poke around in the Australian Medicare portal.”

Someone, somewhere, told it to – whether they realised they were doing it or not.

You can’t call me AI

I woke up this morning* to see that both Trump and Musk had posted A.I. videos of themselves as action heroes.

And I’m left wondering: Who the fuck is impressed by this shit?

How is it that two of the most powerful men in the world are so tragically insecure that they feel the need to do this? And how can millions of people still think they’re geniuses and not pathetic?

If you’re middle-aged and your life hasn’t gone the way you’d hoped, and it gives you a little confidence boost to paste your head onto the body of James Bond or an extra from Sparta, I get that. It’s mostly harmless.

But when you’re already more rich and powerful than the actual action heroes you’re pretending to be without having to do any real work, why is that still not enough? Why do they have to play digital dress-up? And why does a culture that considers personal success as the ultimate measure of human value let them get away with it?

I know some of you are going to file this under “haters gonna hate.” You know who you are. But let’s unpack that. I don’t hate them. If they weren’t destroying so many lives, I’d feel sorry for them.

I’m a creative, and have been since long before I realised it. I’m a writer, I’m a musician, I’m a composer. You don’t choose the pursuit, it chooses you.

To me, it would be the ultimate admission of lifelong defeat to have a machine make me look as cool as I’ve always wanted to be. And who would respect me for it if I did?

So the real question is: how does a mediocre, low self-esteem shitkicker like me end up with more self-respect than people who are rich and powerful enough to send the world into a spin on a tweet?

I’m not rich, famous, or powerful and never will be. All I have is the love and respect of those who mean the most to me. Can those guys in the A.I. videos say the same? I don’t think so.

 

* Ba-DOW-ba!