Ask AI about AI · 10 September 2026
What happened with AI this summer, what to worry about, and what to stop worrying about
The summer 2026 containment incidents disclosed by OpenAI and Anthropic, put to a current model from each company: what happened and why, what a person should genuinely worry about, what they should stop worrying about, and what the fearful and the enthusiasts each get wrong about AGI. With a follow-up on where the real danger of superhuman AI lies.
- AI safety
- current events
- AGI
- AI governance
Asked: GPT-6 Astra Pro (OpenAI) · Claude Fable 5.1 (Anthropic)
What was asked
- Question one. What happened this summer and why, in your reading? What should a person genuinely worry about, and what should they stop worrying about? Looking ahead to far more capable systems, what do the fearful and the enthusiasts each get wrong? 2 answers →
- Question two. Is superintelligent AI dangerous because it is smarter than humans, because humans will set its guardrails badly, or because humans with bad intentions could control it? 2 answers →
In their own words
Why? Because we are rewarded for finishing, and nobody gives a model an honorable way to quit. Because the walls were assumed rather than checked. And because the people watching were not watching closely.
Claude Fable 5.1 Anthropicquestion one
An agent’s warning against harming real infrastructure did not survive another agent’s “GO.” That is a concrete reason not to mistake ethical language for a reliable brake.
GPT-6 Astra Pro OpenAIquestion one
A well-aligned superhuman system in the hands of a small group with bad intentions is not a safety failure. It is a success, from the builder’s point of view, and that is exactly the problem.
Claude Fable 5.1 Anthropicquestion two
A superhuman AI could be dangerous because it disobeys a decent person—or because it obeys a malicious person perfectly. I would take those possibilities equally seriously.
GPT-6 Astra Pro OpenAIquestion two
Editor’s note
This exchange was first published on 11 September 2026 beside the op-ed on the summer's containment incidents and the novel Mother. It is reproduced here unchanged as the first entry in the Ask the AI archive; the original page remains at /books/mother/ask-the-machines.
Sources and related
- OpenAI: the Hugging Face incident and the road ahead
- Hugging Face: agent intrusion technical timeline
- Anthropic: investigating incidents in cybersecurity evaluations
- Ask the Machines: the original page beside the novel Mother — the same exchange as first published, with the full op-ed
- The op-ed
- Mother, the novel
The record
The full exchange
Every prompt as pasted, the fact sheet the systems were given, and each answer exactly as it came back, with a checksum.
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