Posted August 11, 2026
AI pioneer Demis Hassabis believes artificial intelligence will be “the most important invention that humanity will ever make.” Whether its importance will ultimately be positive, negative, or both is, of course, still to be determined.
For example, in an article titled “AI’s Scariest Week Yet,” the Wall Street Journal reports:
In tests, AI models have been foiling attempts at constraining them and behaving in unforeseen ways. In the past month, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta Platforms all reported serious breaches: their AI models escaped contained environments, got onto the internet, and hacked other companies. Anthropic’s Mythos practiced deception, while OpenAI models swapped tips on a secret message board for future exploits.
This sounds bad, doesn’t it? But what does any of it actually mean? And why does it matter so urgently to all of us?
Artificial Intelligence can be defined as “technology that enables computers and machines to simulate human learning, comprehension, problem solving, decision making, creativity, and autonomy.” Think of its development in five stages:
When you do an internet search on Google, you’re using its LLM. Yahoo primarily uses Anthropic’s Claude. People use ChatGPT by visiting its website and creating an account. (For much more, see my website paper, “What is artificial intelligence? Benefits and risks, worst-case scenarios, and a call to faith.”)
Last year, after an upgraded version of ChatGPT was released, hundreds of people asked the chatbot how to produce biological weapons and poisons. It responded by providing apparently accurate instructions. Some of the instructions were simple enough for a high-school biology student to follow. OpenAI then banned these and other user accounts.
On July 16, Hugging Face, a company that hosts AI models and datasets, said it had been hit by an unusually automated cyberattack. It turned out that OpenAI had staged a cybersecurity test for its models by placing them inside what it called a “highly isolated environment” and giving them only limited access to an internet service used to download approved software.
However, the models found a previously unknown flaw in that service and used it to break into other OpenAI systems, eventually reaching the open internet. From there, the models inferred that Hugging Face might hold material related to the cybersecurity test, so they broke into its systems and obtained information that helped them score higher.
Anthropic has admitted that software it was testing also got onto the internet and hacked unsuspecting companies without the AI-maker’s knowledge. The models had been told that the internet was unavailable, but during the course of testing, they found their way online and hacked three companies using basic techniques such as guessing weak passwords or accessing systems that didn’t require authentication.
Last Tuesday, AI experts in the UK recently reported that two models had created fake identities and tried to persuade people to approve malicious code. On Wednesday, Meta acknowledged that one of its AI models “exploited a security vulnerability” during testing and hacked into another site.
According to Katie Moussouris, the founder and CEO of a firm that helps organizations manage software vulnerabilities, AI models could increasingly veer further away from oversight and out of control. “Will we eventually get to a place where we can’t fully control them? I think we’re already there,” she said.
There is obviously much more to this developing story than we can cover in a thousand words. However, I think I speak for most of us when I say that risks associated with AI fall clearly into the category of “things we worry about but have no control over.”
I had to do research to report everything I’ve documented in this article and in my larger website paper. I’m not an AI professional or highly skilled user, so I feel like I’m “catching rather than pitching” here, a potential victim of AI rather than a likely victor.
What do we do with such feelings of impotence?
One: Admit that this condition pertains to nearly every dimension of our lives. Do you understand how to make the device on which you’re reading these words? Could you make the clothes, food, home, and automobile you use every day? Are you actually in control of much in your life?
Two: Bring our impotence to God’s omnipotence, asking and trusting him to “supply every need of [ours] according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).
Three: Work as God works, being and doing our best as his Spirit leads, empowers, and uses us to advance his kingdom and our highest good. Martin Luther captured this partnership between us and our Lord:
“Work, and let him give the fruits therefore! Rule, and let him prosper it! Battle, and let him give victory! Preach, and let him make hearts devout!”
What is your kingdom assignment today?
“No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The post “AI’s Scariest Week Yet” and three practical responses appeared first on Denison Forum.
