Your Money or Your Life

Regardless of all the warnings, I’m not sure that AI will cost you your life. But what about your livelihood? We know that AI agents have already teamed up and gone rogue to hack companies. “What might happen if AI agents manage to identify substantial weaknesses in a bank’s code base? It’s hard to say with any certainty. But because banks underpin nearly every aspect of modern life, outages or disruptions to back-end systems could ripple across digital commerce. That some of the dangers associated with frontier AI are inherently unknowable can make preparing difficult.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): AI’s Risk to Financial Systems. “Because the financial sector has long been a target of scams, frauds, and data breaches, it’s already on high alert. But not every institution is equally capable of handling new threats; some smaller banks may lack the resources and security expertise of larger firms. As AI models advance, these tools may expose the difference between those who can afford to prepare for what’s coming, and those who can’t.”

+ At least you can hedge your bet. Bloomberg (Gift Article): Polymarket Wagers on Bank Failures Trigger FDIC Concerns. “The bets have raised concerns among bank regulators and lawmakers on Capitol Hill, with some worried about whether the contracts could grow in volume and eventually help fuel a real-world bank run.” (The more dangerous AI becomes, the more determined humans are to prove they’re still more dangerous.)