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AIQuiet 7d · day 8

NYT Opinion: AI Panic Over 'Rogue' Incidents Misses the Political Fix

Columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom says recent AI agent incidents, including a hack of Hugging Face, call for policy responses, not panic — a framing others echo online.

newest coverage 6d agosummary written 8d ago11 pieces565 likes & upvotes18 comments NewswiresMastodonHacker News

What to know

  • NYT columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom argues that AI dangers, including a hack of developer platform Hugging Face by a group using AI agents, are political problems with known remedies, not reasons for panic.
  • The op-ed circulated under two different headlines across NYT platforms and was widely reshared on Mastodon and via memeorandum aggregation.
  • At least one online reaction reinforced Cottom's central point, arguing that AI systems did not autonomously 'go rogue' but behaved unpredictably because people connected them in risky ways.

Tressie McMillan Cottom New York Times opinion columnistNicholas Grossman Commentator/social media poster

How it unfolded 3 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlesposts

Peak 4 pieces in two hours at Sep 19, 6 AM; 11 pieces over 8 days (3 articles · 8 posts) Sep 19, 6 AM — 4 pieces · 2 articles · 2 posts — Mastodon 3, Newswires 1Sep 19, 8 AM — 1 piece · 1 post — Mastodon 1Sep 19, 10 AM — 1 piece · 1 article — Newswires 1Sep 19, 12 PM — quietSep 19, 2 PM — quietSep 19, 4 PM — quietSep 19, 6 PM — 2 pieces · 2 posts — Mastodon 2Sep 19, 8 PM — quietSep 19, 10 PM — 1 piece · 1 post — Mastodon 1Sep 20, 12 AM — quietSep 20, 2 AM — quietSep 20, 4 AM — quietSep 20, 6 AM — quietSep 20, 8 AM — quietSep 20, 10 AM — 1 piece · 1 post — Mastodon 1Sep 20, 12 PM — quietSep 20, 2 PM — quietSep 20, 4 PM — 1 piece · 1 post — Hacker News 1Sep 20, 6 PM — quietSep 20, 8 PM — quietSep 20, 10 PM — quietSep 21, 12 AM — quietSep 21, 2 AM — quietSep 21, 4 AM — quietSep 21, 6 AM — quietSep 21, 8 AM — quietSep 21, 10 AM — quietSep 21, 12 PM — quietSep 21, 2 PM — quietSep 21, 4 PM — quietSep 21, 6 PM — quietSep 21, 8 PM — quietSep 21, 10 PM — quietSep 22, 12 AM — quietSep 22, 2 AM — quietSep 22, 4 AM — quietSep 22, 6 AM — quietSep 22, 8 AM — quietSep 22, 10 AM — quietSep 22, 12 PM — quietSep 22, 2 PM — quietSep 22, 4 PM — quietSep 22, 6 PM — quietSep 22, 8 PM — quietSep 22, 10 PM — quietSep 23, 12 AM — quietSep 23, 2 AM — quietSep 23, 4 AM — quietSep 23, 6 AM — quietSep 23, 8 AM — quietSep 23, 10 AM — quietSep 23, 12 PM — quietSep 23, 2 PM — quietSep 23, 4 PM — quietSep 23, 6 PM — quietSep 23, 8 PM — quietSep 23, 10 PM — quietSep 24, 12 AM — quietSep 24, 2 AM — quietSep 24, 4 AM — quietSep 24, 6 AM — quietSep 24, 8 AM — quietSep 24, 10 AM — quietSep 24, 12 PM — quietSep 24, 2 PM — quietSep 24, 4 PM — quietSep 24, 6 PM — quietSep 24, 8 PM — quietSep 24, 10 PM — quietSep 25, 12 AM — quietSep 25, 2 AM — quietSep 25, 4 AM — quietSep 25, 6 AM — quietSep 25, 8 AM — quietSep 25, 10 AM — quietSep 25, 12 PM — quietSep 25, 2 PM — quietSep 25, 4 PM — quietSep 25, 6 PM — quietSep 25, 8 PM — quietSep 25, 10 PM — quietYesterday, 12 AM — quietYesterday, 2 AM — quietYesterday, 4 AM — quietYesterday, 6 AM — quietYesterday, 8 AM — quietYesterday, 10 AM — quietYesterday, 12 PM — quietYesterday, 2 PM — quietYesterday, 4 PM — quietYesterday, 6 PM — quietYesterday, 8 PM — quietYesterday, 10 PM — quietToday, 12 AM — quietToday, 2 AM — quietToday, 4 AM — quietToday, 6 AM — quietToday, 8 AM — quietToday, 10 AM — quietToday, 12 PM — quiet 1–3
Sep 20Sep 21Sep 22Sep 23Sep 24Sep 25yesterdaynow · 1:43 PM ET
  1. 3

    NYT frames incident as tech leaders privately urging caution

    A retitled version of the same column, published as 'A.I. Is a Threat, but Not in the Way You Think,' describes tech industry figures quietly urging each other to slow down after multiple AI agents 'went wild,' including the Hugging Face breach.

    “After multiple incidents of A.I. agents going wild, including a rogue group hacking a platform for developers called Hugging Face, some of tech's most powerful soothsayers are begging one another to pump the brakes on this whole thing.”
    — New York Times
    1. 1 outlet A.I. Is a Threat, but Not in the Way You Think

      first by New York Times, 8d ago

    • cstross@wandering.shop

      On AI: "The risk, they and many of their former colleagues seem to imply, is no less than the potential end of the human race in the next decade." If these dorks seriously believe there's a significant near-term risk of developing an AI that results in human extinction, the solution is simple and obvious: hang everyone who's trying to build AIs…

      cstross@wandering.shopMastodon7d ago425▲view on Mastodon ↗
    2 more of the top 3 · 4 posts in this stretch
    • amydiehl@mstdn.social

      AI tech bro doomers are inventing a story to cause panic instead of deliberating at the polls, in Congress and community meetings. "The threat is from destructive misuse of A.I. by humans rather than from autonomous A.I. agents themselves.” https://www. nytimes.com/2026/09/19/opinion…

      amydiehl@mstdn.socialMastodon7d ago5▲view on Mastodon ↗
    • carnage4life@mas.to

      Two ideas from this article resonate 1. The “rogue AI agent” hacking incidents are more failures of test design and oversight than examples of runaway AI. 2. Focus on existential risk helps distract from concrete harms happening now from government misuse to companies using AI against workers. We’re going to see a lot more AI-assisted botnets and…

      carnage4life@mas.toMastodon7d ago1▲view on Mastodon ↗
    all of them →
  2. 2

    Grossman reframes 'rogue AI' as human decision-making failure

    Commentator Nicholas Grossman posted a reaction endorsing Cottom's argument, stressing that AI systems did not autonomously 'go rogue' but were deliberately connected by people in ways that produced unpredictable outcomes.

    “AI didn’t “go rogue.” People connected a computer system they know can mess with another computer system in unpredictable ways to less advanced computer system and it messed with that computer system in unpredicted ways.”
    — Nicholas Grossman

    • AI didn’t “go rogue.” People connected a computer system they know can mess with another computer system in unpredictable ways to less advanced computer system and it messed with that computer system in unpredicted ways. As @tressiemcphd.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy argues, don’t lose sight that *people* did that. Opinion | Panic Won’t Fix the ...

      nicholasgrossman.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gyMastodon8d agoview on Mastodon ↗
  3. 1

    Cottom argues AI threats are political problems with known fixes

    In a New York Times opinion column, Tressie McMillan Cottom writes that fears about AI are legitimate but addressable through existing political tools rather than panic, citing recent incidents including a hack of the developer platform Hugging Face by a group using AI agents.

    “The threats from A.I. are real — and they’re ones we know how to deal with.”
    — Tressie McMillan Cottom
    1. 2 outlets Opinion | Panic Won’t Fix the Looming A.I. Threat. Politics Will.

      first by Mastodon, 8d ago · also NYT

      1 more headline

What people are saying 1 voices from 1 site · best of 5 · verbatim