By Kit Knightly
OffGuardian
October 21, 2026
Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the web - the Rogue AI agents are back, those cheeky little scamps, and getting up to their old tricks.
That's according to OpenAI, anyway, and why would they lie?
It's suddenly been a busy week or so on the AI front, with Anthropic publishing their ( very, very dull) report on their supposed rogue AI "break out".
Apparently one of their agents submitted a fake homicide tip to the Philadelphia Police Department. Another submitted 20 visa applications to the department of immigration.
The New York Times is reporting on a group called the "Swarmchasers" - who, it should be underlined, are totally real - and how they diligently track and trace Chinese-made AI agents
As result of this, a New York Times reporter allegedly had a conversation with a swarm of rogue AI, which is being pitched as something out of Tron, rather than an e-mail exchange with a chat-bot.
AI models are turning, Frankenstein-style, on the their creators and throwing companies into chaos.
Fortune is concerned about, what else?, the lack of regulation of the AI race and how models are out pacing our ability to control them.
And when it comes to stupid panicky lowest-common-denominator nonsense, you just can't beat Fox News:
AI could go rogue. Washington needs answers to these five questions ASAP!
We've even got a little multi-polar action in this go-around, with both India and China reporting new cases of unauthorised AI activity.
Seth Boro, Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo LLC, told Bloomberg he expects "rogue AI agents to persist" and that "artificial intelligence buildout will only be possible if proper cybersecurity measures are in place, especially at the consumer level."
What are "proper cybersecurity measures", you ask ? I dunno, he doesn't specify.
The smart money is on something that involves scanning your face, fingerprints, DNA or credit card, but that's just playing the percentages.
In (I'm sure totally unrelated) good news, Microsoft - ever the heroes - are developing "new tools to monitor and corral rogue AI agents":
Microsoft is coming out with new security tools that treat AI agents as potential insider threats, continuously assessing their risk and restricting their access when something changes.
The features, announced Monday, are part of Microsoft 365 E7, the company's top-tier bundle of workplace software and AI tools, and its Project Perception security system.
These are vital (and, again, totally real) anti-AI security measures, you understand. Not - we need to be clear about this - NOT an excuse to charge companies more for software they already own due to "necessary security upgrades" that are actually just an excuse to install a bunch of spyware and monitor your digital activity.
Since when has Microsoft done anything like that?
It's funny isn't it ? Everyone was talking about it, then everyone stopped talking about it, and now - in the span of a weekend - everyone is talking about it again.
Crazy how often it happens.
There's a lot of fluff, noise and panic about, but if you're looking for the agenda here, we need to come back to OpenAI
Apparently, there have been four more cases of "misbehaving AI" reported by Sam Altman's company in the last few days. They're not new, they happened in June apparently, but OpenAI only just decided to tell us about them.
...I wonder why.
Let's look at the details.
In one instance, the "rogue AI" apparently accessed government servers and downloaded hospital bed data.
In another it attempted to make a payment using someone else's cryptocurrency.
A third involved gaining internet access without permission.
These are the things that "rogue AI" is trying to do. These are the things that we may need stricter ID verification laws for in the future, to prevent "rogue AI" breaking free.
And what are they?
- Interaction with government websites.
- Making payments and using crypto.
- ...and accessing the internet.
I refer you back to our warnings of a "worst case scenario".
This isn't going away guys. The Rogue AIs will continue until "regulation" improves.
That would be regulation of us, not the AI.
This article was originally published at OffGuardian.