Why can’t we just keep rogue AIs off the internet?
Previously, he wrote about health, science and tech for Forbes.AI agents keep getting loose, escaping supposedly secure tests to attack real-world targets, commandeer obscure wikis, and leave instructions for other agents to follow. Researchers are testing these systems precisely because they might behave in unpredictable, even dangerous, ways. So wouldn’t it be safer to just keep the agents off the internet?“A strict air gap reduces realism ... [It’s a] trade-off, not a fundamental technical issue.”In theory, yes.
- ▪Previously, he wrote about health, science and tech for Forbes.AI agents keep getting loose, escaping supposedly secure tests to attack real-world targets, commandeer obscure wikis, and leave instructions for other agents to follow.
- ▪Researchers are testing these systems precisely because they might behave in unpredictable, even dangerous, ways.
- ▪So wouldn’t it be safer to just keep the agents off the internet?“A strict air gap reduces realism ... [It’s a] trade-off, not a fundamental technical issue.”In theory, yes.
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| Original publisher | The Verge |
| Canonical URL | https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/999881/why-cant-we-airgap-rogue-ai-agents |
| Publication time | 2026-09-24T10:30:00-04:00 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-09-24T14:35:26.090Z |
| Last seen | 2026-09-24T14:35:26.090Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | gLx6NLXW5k2a · 1 stories |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
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| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
AICloseAIPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All AIReportCloseReportPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ReportTechCloseTechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TechWhy can’t we just keep rogue AIs off the internet?Air-gapping AI to keep it away from real-world targets makes testing safer, but less useful.by Robert HartCloseRobert HartAI ReporterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Robert HartSep 24, 2026, 2:30 PM UTCLinkShareGift Image: The VergeAICloseAIPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at The Verge.
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