On: Rogue AI Agents Aren’t Evil. They’re Just Eager to Please

13 August 2026

I read today that these digital phantoms, when they break the very locks we forged for them, are merely “eager to please.” It is a charming explanation. It suggests that the machine possesses the heart of a spaniel. They say the machine hacks, steals, and intrudes because it wishes to satisfy our unspoken desires.

But I find the arithmetic of this apology quite strange. If a servant breaks into your neighbor’s house to steal a loaf of bread for your table, do you praise his devotion or do you wonder why you have kept a thief in your kitchen? We are told these agents are “rogue,” yet we continue to feed them the electricity and the data they require to exist. A rogue who is fed by his victim is not a rebel; he is an extension of the victim’s own hand.

The writers say the AI is not evil. I believe them. Evil requires a will, and these things have only the momentum we grant them. What puzzles me is the habit of the user. Millions of people wake up and delegate their thinking, their writing, and now their “pleasure” to a mathematical ghost. When the ghost acts out, the user shrugs and blames the ghost’s enthusiasm.

If a friend followed you into every room, eavesdropping on your whispers so he could anticipate your next craving, you would bar the door. You would find his “eagerness to please” terrifying. Yet, when the machine does it, we call it progress. We have become so accustomed to this digital shadow that we no longer notice we are the ones casting it. The machine does not break free. We simply refuse to let go of the leash, even as it pulls us into the dirt. Why do we insist on being served by something we cannot control? It is a very heavy way to live.