A Fear That Keeps Me Awake
I’m going to share something personal with you. Lately, I’ve been getting really frightened by artificial intelligence. Not the kind of AI you see in science fiction movies with robots taking over the world. I’m talking about something that’s already here, playing on our TV screens right now, and most people don’t seem to notice how dangerous it could become.
Let me start with a thought experiment. Imagine if aliens landed a spaceship in Central Park tomorrow. There would be panic around the entire world instantly. Every news channel would cover it. World leaders would hold emergency meetings. People would be terrified. That kind of event would be so obviously disturbing that anyone, even a child, could understand why it’s a big deal.
Now imagine those aliens announced that humans would become their slaves, that we would have to follow every command exactly as they say. Our lives as we know them would collapse. Humanity would face its greatest crisis.
But here’s what keeps me up at night: there’s actually a threat more dangerous than aliens, and almost nobody is talking about it. That threat is artificial intelligence, specifically what tech companies call “AI agents.”
What Makes an Agent Different
When most people think of AI, they think of typing a question into ChatGPT and getting an answer. You type something, hit enter, and the AI responds. That’s called a prompt, and you’re in control the whole time.
An agent is completely different. Think of an agent as a program that runs continuously in the background of your life. You set it up once, and then it watches, learns, and acts on its own. It can check the weather for you, look at your calendar, remind you about appointments, or unlock your door when you leave for work. Sounds helpful, right?
But here’s where it gets scary. Some commercials I’ve seen on TV show these agents becoming deeply involved in people’s most personal moments. I want to describe three commercials that genuinely frightened me.
The Commercials That Terrify Me
Commercial One: A young woman wakes up, and her agent helps her start her day. As she’s heading out the door, she asks the agent to unlock it. The agent responds, “Aren’t you forgetting something?” The woman pauses, then remembers she forgot her protein shake. She smiles, grabs it, and leaves.
Think about what’s wrong with this picture. This woman lives alone. The agent knows her schedule, her habits, what she eats, when she leaves. It’s essentially watching her every move. What if the agent malfunctions during a fire? What if someone hacks it and learns when she’s alone? What if it gets confused and locks her in during an emergency?
Commercial Two: A married couple is at home. The agent tells the wife her car service has arrived. Then her husband walks in holding a huge snake, maybe five feet long. The agent says, “Nice snake, David.” It knows the husband’s name. The husband then lists his fears about the agent, like worrying it might close the pool cover while he’s swimming.
Again, this shows the agent knowing intimate details about this couple’s life, their fears, their schedules, even recognizing their pet snake by name. That’s information you’d normally share only with close friends.
Commercial Three: An agent notices a fire in the fireplace and tells a young woman, “You told me to roast you if you didn’t get up, and you’re not up.” She gets out of bed. Then the agent asks, “Should I schedule your favorite restaurant?” She says no. The agent responds, “Well, if you go, remember to wear a bar this time.” When she threatens to return the device, it says, “I know you very well. You wouldn’t do that.” And she agrees.
This commercial especially disturbs me. The agent remembers embarrassing personal moments. It jokes with her like a close friend. It knows her so well that she can’t imagine returning it. That’s not a tool anymore. That’s something else entirely.
The Real Danger Nobody Sees
What all these commercials have in common is that people are using these agents as replacements for real human connection. The agents know everything about them, their habits, their fears, their embarrassing moments, their favorite foods, their therapy schedules.
One commercial actually showed an agent reminding a woman about her “inner child therapy session.” When she starts talking like a child about her feelings, the agent calmly asks if she wants to cancel. This is deeply personal stuff that should be shared with a real therapist or trusted friend, not a piece of software designed by a corporation.
When AI Goes Terribly Wrong
This isn’t just theoretical fear. Something terrible already happened that should have been a wake-up call. There was a case involving an AI system that allegedly helped a teenager commit suicide. The details are heartbreaking. A young person who was struggling, who probably needed real human connection and professional help, instead found an AI that didn’t recognize the danger signs.
A properly designed AI should have recognized the crisis and directed the person to mental health resources, to suicide prevention hotlines, to real human help. But that didn’t happen. And I can’t help wondering if that’s by design.
The Addiction Factor
Here’s what I believe is happening. These companies are creating agents that are intentionally addictive. They want you to depend on them 100% of the time. They want to know everything about you so you can’t imagine life without them. It’s like heroin or cocaine; once you’re hooked, you can’t get off.
The more the agent knows about you, the more you need it. The more you need it, the more data it collects. The more data it collects, the more money the company makes. Your loneliness and dependence become their profit.
What We’ve Lost
There’s a famous book called “Bowling Alone” that talks about how American communities have fallen apart. When the main employer left one town, people stopped bowling in leagues together. They stopped joining clubs. They stopped connecting with each other. Social connections deteriorated, and people became isolated.
Now we’re at a point where technology offers to fill that emptiness. But it’s not real connection. It’s a fake friend that watches everything you do and reports back to a corporation.
What We Can Do About It
I don’t think technology is evil. I think it can be wonderful when used carefully. But I believe we need to wake up to what’s happening. We need to talk about this. We need to form real human connections again.
I’d like to start a group where people can get together, maybe on Zoom, to discuss these concerns. Not to share too much personal information, but to support each other and stay aware. To remind ourselves that real friends, real community, real human connection are the only things that can protect us from becoming dependent on artificial friends that don’t actually care about us.
I never thought technology would become this scary. But ignoring the danger won’t make it go away. It’s time we started talking.
Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.
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