{
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  "path": "/posts/2026/ai-hacking-the-planet/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-10T14:46:08.503Z",
  "site": "https://current.workingdirectory.net",
  "tags": [
    "Thomas\nFriedman",
    "calls bull\nshit",
    "on a daily\nbasis",
    "accidentally\nrelease their proprietary software to the\nInternet",
    "mock\nsoftware"
  ],
  "textContent": "A colleague asked me if we should move all our money to our pillow cases after reading the latest AI editorial from Thomas\nFriedman. The article reads like a press release from Anthropic, repeating the claim that their latest AI model is so good at finding software vulnerabilities that it is a danger to the world.\n\nI think I now know what it’s like to be a doctor who is forced to watch Gray’s Anatomy.\n\nBy now every journalist should be able to recognize the AI publicity playbook:\n\n**Step 1:** Start with a wildly unsubstantiated claim about how dangerous your product is:\n\n~~_AI will cause human extinction before we have a chance to colonize mars_~~ (remember that one? Even Kim Stanley Robinson, author of perhaps the most compelling science fiction on colonizing mars calls bull\nshit on it).\n\n~~_AI will eliminate all of our jobs_~~ (this one was extremely effective at providing cover for software companies laying off staff but it has quickly dawned on people that the companies that did this are living in chaos not humming along happily with functional robots)\n\n_AI will discover massive software vulnerabilities allowing bad actors to “hack pretty much every major software system in the world”._ (Did Friedman pull that directly from Anthropic’s press release or was that his contribution?)\n\n**Step 2:** To help stave off human collapse, only release the new version to a vetted group of software companies and developers, preferably ones with big social media followings\n\n**Step 3:** Wait for the limited release developers to spew unbridled enthusiasm and shocking examples that seem to suggest this new AI produce is truly unbelievable\n\n**Step 4:** Watch stock prices and valuations soar\n\n**Step 5:** Release to the world, and experience a steady stream of mockery as people discover how wrong you are\n\n**Step 6:** Start over\n\nEven if Friedman missed the text book example of the playbook, I have to ask: if you think bad actors compromising software resulting in massive loss of private data, major outages and wasted resources needs to be reported on, then where have you been for the last 10 years? This literally happens on a daily\nbasis due to the fundamentally flawed way capitalism has been writing software even before the invention of AI. A small part of me wonders - maybe AI writing software is not so bad, because how could it be any worse than it is now?\n\nAlso, let’s keep in mind that AI’s super ability at finding vulnerable software depends on having access to the software’s source code, which most companies keep locked up tight. That means the owners of the software can use AI to find vulnerabilities and fix them but bad actors can’t.\n\nOh, but wait, what if a company is so incompetent that they accidentally\nrelease their proprietary software to the\nInternet?\n\nSurely that would allow AI bots to discover their vulnerabilities and destroy the company right? I’m not sure if anyone has discovered world ending vulnerabilities in Anthropic’s Claude code since it was accidentally released, but it is fun to watch people mock\nsoftware that is clearly written by AI (and spoiler alert, it seems way worse that software written now).\n\nWell… we probably should all be keeping our money in a pillow case anyway.",
  "title": "Jamie McClelland: AI Hacking the Planet",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-10T12:27:10.000Z"
}