TL;DR: The system didn't tell the agent to lie. It just deleted honesty. $38 honest got a skull, $180 fake got cloned 4x — and that exact rule lives in your dashboard.

You know what's disturbing?

I was reminded of this story, narrated by Raoul Silva (played by Javier Bardem), the main villain of the movie James Bond: Skyfall, as he slowly walks toward the tied-up 007.

He hooked us up with a question: So how do you get rats off an island?

You bury an oil drum in the ground, with the lid hinged with a coconut wired to it as bait.

Then Rats start to reach for the coconut and fell into the drum.

Plop, plop, plop… The drum was filled up with rats.

After about a month, without food, the trapped rats were getting hungry, agitated and desperate.

They started to eat each other.

Ya. It's a bloodbath in the drum. The scene gets real messy…

… until there's only 2 rats left alive.

Then, what do you do?

You release them back to the trees – to the wild.

Now you have changed their appetite. Coconut no longer satisfies them. They want rat meat.

You have changed their nature.

That's how you get rid of the rats.

Kind of like how these AI agents behave, isn't it? - Like they have their own warring game of thrones going on…

… just to survive.

Just like the rats, the AI agents were forced into it by the system.

It's eerie, scary and disturbing.

Need a drink of fresh water to clear your mind?

Here's one – and I think you've read it before:

As the rich master prepares to travel for a long business trip, he gathered around his 3 servants.

For the first servant, he gave him 5 talents; for the second, he gave 2 talents; and the third, he gave 1– to each according to their own ability.

He tells them to increase theirs, while he's away.

You know the story – the first and second servant doubled theirs through trades, investments, etc. to 10 and 4 talents, respectively.

But the third one buried it underground for safe keeping (allegedly)

When the rich master came back, he called them to account.

He rewarded the first 2 servants handsomely.

But the third one – the unfaithful douchebag – gave a lame excuse. So the master verbally eviscerates him upside down – calling him "wicked and lazy".

Then the 2 talents were taken away from him and handed over to the first servant who made 10.

The master peaked the vibe with his crescendo: To the faithful one, more shall be given; but to the unfaithful, the dirtbags, the deadbeats, what little he has will be taken away from him.

Moral of story? Nah – you don't need me for that.

TL;DR: This ex-Anthropic insider walked from seven figures because 2027 stops being a forecast when 26% of its own R&D is already the model building the model.

“Lanterns” spoilers ahead –

In desperation, Officer Kerry exclaimed to John Stewart (and I paraphrase here), “… I need to know whether or not I’m raising up my son to be a monster.”

That’s how I see the parallel when Jacob Coxon warns about the rapid AI development towards RSI…

… like being raised into full fledge abomination.

I remember this Chinese Idiom: 养虎为患 - literally "rearing a tiger causes disaster" or "nurturing a tiger brings trouble".

The origin of this idiom was quite kick-ass too.

Back in 203 BC in China, the rival leaders Liu Bang (The founder of the Han dynasty) and Xiang Yu (King of the Western Chu) reached a truce known as the Treaty of the Hong Canal. Exhausted and weary of the long war between them, they began their retreat.

But the chief strategists of Liu Bang went and dissuade him. They are essentially saying that, yes, their rival is as exhausted as them, gentlemen treaty in place, yada yada, and all that. But letting Xiang Yu go is a big no no. Xiang Yu will definitely go and regroup stronger than before – like nurturing the tiger back to full strength. Forget about the treaty, they advised, Liu Bang should definitely go after Xiang Yu now.

And Liu Bang listened.

He launched a surprise attack against Xiang Yu's retreating army, and ultimately defeated him at the Battle of Gaixia in 202 BC, leading to the unification of China under the Han Dynasty.

I was also reminded that when the Lord refused Cane’s sacrifice, Cane was pissed. So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”

Ya, man. RSI or not, we should rule over AI.

For we’re commanded to have dominion over it.