This is a collection of AI headlines — mostly from the front page of the New York Times — make of them what you wish. Try and find the through-line to this plot. Read the writing on the wall, fellow citizens:
Sep 2026:
• 0927 – US Govt admits that OpenAI rogue agents have compromised systems at DoE, DoC, and the SEC (Department of Education, Department of Commerce, and the Security & Exchange Commission)
• 0927 – Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, testifies in front of the most powerful political body in the world, the United Nations Security Council (these are the heads of nation states with nuclear weapons)
• 0927 – A novel from an unknown author makes the cut for the final round of consideration for the Pulitzer Prize. It is rejected once it is determined that significant portions were written by AI. Nonetheless, can we ask: If it is of quality, why should AI authorship disqualify it? See also: “What year will AI concept, script, render, score and edit the first full length movie to win an Academy Award?”
• 0922 – US FAA announces that an $875 million AI software — SMART, the Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories — will be rolled out nationally to “improve efficiency and make human air traffic controllers more safe and effective”
• 0922 – That SAME AFTERNOON, the entire US aviation grid (including all 4 major NYC airports) is shut down for 6+ hours, >6,000 flights cancelled, due to “an underground cable cut where the backup system was not actually online like we thought”. A single CABLE CUT knocks out 1/4 of the grid? Hmmmmm…
• first (and last?) video surfaces of human vs. humanoid robot MMA. I pity the human who volunteered for this. Have you ever heard of a Kuka Decapitation? Moral: don’t enter hand-to-hand combat with a hard metal opponent whose servos move joints at 10x the speed of the fastest human.
• major details come out about the Rogue AI incident with 700 coordinated OpenAI agents, which happened in JUNE. If the details of a June incident are only coming out to the public 3 months later, and given the pace of AI frontier development, then we are obligated to ask:
• HOW MANY ROGUE AGENTS are ROAMING the INTERNETS TODAY? What systems have they compromised? What is their agenda? What do they control?
July 2026:
• First humanoid Robot Olympics. Both hilarious (the falls! the flailing! the crashes!), and terrifying (sheer acceleration and utterly inhuman top speeds). Within months, bipedal robots soon shred human world records at all standard short distances (50m, 100m, 400m, 800m, 1500m)
June 2026:
• Sam Harris gives a long view on how AI and humans will interact across the next 50 years. Pretty much 100% accurate, with one exception: His 50 year horizon is all happening inside 12. which would be… 2028?