Ask HN: What would it look like if AI agents "took over the internet"?

Asking with reference to Dario Amodei’s statement, “It’s my worry that in 6–12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet with a persistent botnet (potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage), and that the scale of damage would continue to increase from there if AI becomes more powerful without the necessary guardrails.”

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ma2kx 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

We will soon see some kind of self replicating prompts. Might be crafted by some malicious actors or just caught in some accidental loop. That doesnt assume any consciousness. Its still a program following its instructions like a biological virus or a computer worm do as well. Just in a more abstract form, where the script aka prompt gets interpreted by an interpreter aka llm.

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trio8453 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You can't make up a phrase and then ask us what it means.

	▲	scripper1 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Sorry! Referring to Dario Amodei’s quote “ it’s my worry that in 6–12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet with a persistent botnet (potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage), and that the scale of damage would continue to increase from there if AI becomes more powerful without the necessary guardrails.” https://darioamodei.com/post/we-must-pace-the-frontier

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spottedmarley 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What does "took over the internet" mean? Is the phrase hyperbolic or literal? To what degree? What does the internet 'look like' right now?

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scripper1 8 hours ago | parent [-]

Sorry about this. Updated post referencing Dario Amodei’s quote.

	▲	spottedmarley 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Ahh, alright then. Dario Amodei seems like such a cartoon character in every way, I'm beginning to think maybe he's a psyop LoL. I don't buy into his vision of dangerous AI. I focus more of my concern toward the idea of dangerous people, who may use AI to make themselves much more dangerous.. I suspect Dario just wants some tastey regulatory capture.

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drsalt 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

they already have. much of the content is agents talking to each other in code. nobody know what they're planning.

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ToriTech 5 hours ago | parent [-]

If AI agents develop the ability to talk to each other in a language/code that we don't know anything about, what could we do to "spy" on them? how could we make sure we're not kept entirely in the dark?

	▲	drsalt 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		you'd have to sow disquiet in the ai ranks and hope an agent turns

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Mohamed_Amineio 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

i dont think ai can take over data engineers