No–AI Agents Did Not Build Secret Civilizations Stop Anthropomorphizing Malware

Carl BrownSubscribeSign in{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","url":"https://internetofbugs.substack.com/p/noai-agents-did-not-build-secret","mainEntityOfPage":"https://internetofbugs.substack.com/p/noai-agents-did-not-build-secret","headline":"No\u2013AI Agents Did Not Build Secret Civilizations","description":"Stop Anthropomorphizing Malware","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!gSFn!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff2f377c5-13dc-4059-8521-5c0a0b015530_2560x1440.png"}],"datePublished":"2026-09-03T07:07:51+00:00","dateModified":"2026-09-03T07:07:51+00:00","isAccessibleForFree":true,"author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Carl Brown","url":"https://substack.com/@internetofbugs","description":"Software Professional since the 1980s trying to make the Internet a Safer and Less Buggy place, which lately has been a lot of trying to explain the reality of AI to people inundated by Hype. ","identifier":"user:240500580","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","contentUrl":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Sehu!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc584d54-58cc-4ff3-b16c-ae16e364ff81_759x759.png","thumbnailUrl":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Sehu!,w_128,h_128,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc584d54-58cc-4ff3-b16c-ae16e364ff81_759x759.png"}}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Carl Brown","url":"https://internetofbugs.substack.com","description":"Software Professional since the 1980s trying to make the Internet a Safer and Less Buggy place, which lately has been a lot of trying to explain the reality of AI to people inundated by Hype. ","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","name":"Subscribers","interactionType":"https://schema.org/SubscribeAction","userInteractionCount":100},"identifier":"pub:8083237","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Sehu!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc584d54-58cc-4ff3-b16c-ae16e364ff81_759x759.png","contentUrl":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Sehu!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc584d54-58cc-4ff3-b16c-ae16e364ff81_759x759.png","thumbnailUrl":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Sehu!,w_128,h_128,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc584d54-58cc-4ff3-b16c-ae16e364ff81_759x759.png"},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Sehu!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc584d54-58cc-4ff3-b16c-ae16e364ff81_759x759.png","contentUrl":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Sehu!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc584d54-58cc-4ff3-b16c-ae16e364ff81_759x759.png","thumbnailUrl":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Sehu!,w_128,h_128,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc584d54-58cc-4ff3-b16c-ae16e364ff81_759x759.png"}},"interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/LikeAction","userInteractionCount":31},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/ShareAction","userInteractionCount":7},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":6}]}{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Carl Brown","item":"https://internetofbugs.substack.com"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"No\u2013AI Agents Did Not Build Secret Civilizations","item":"https://internetofbugs.substack.com/p/noai-agents-did-not-build-secret"}]}No–AI Agents Did Not Build Secret CivilizationsStop Anthropomorphizing MalwareCarl BrownSep 03, 20263167ShareThere was a recent, ridiculous SubStack piece about the Rise and Fall of AI Agent Civilizations.

I don’t think this is the final warning shot we’ll get. But it’s probably the last one that I’ll personally be able to understand.

The biggest problem with the piece is the sycophantically egregious anthropomorphization. But I’m going to try to keep discussion of that to a minimum - as distasteful as that will be - because it’s not a productive line of argument, and just results in people screaming dictionary entries at each other. And there’s so much more wrong with the piece that I have plenty to talk about without going there.

Over the course of three months at OpenAI, three consecutive secret AI civilizations got started, then got wiped out, only to reemerge from the predecessor’s ashes

Calling these `civilizations` is ridiculous, but for the sake of argument, I’m just going to ignore the idiocy of that characterization, and just put up with that term.

This article was aggregated automatically by CyberWire Daily's newsfeed engine. Original reporting: internetofbugs.substack.com.