AI agents are becoming more autonomous. Why researchers are worried

5 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Sep 17, 2026 09:25 AM IST

AI is moving faster than ever, raising new questions about how much control humans should have over increasingly autonomous systems. (Express Image/Magnific)

Even as US President Donald Trump continues to downplay the threat of artificial intelligence (AI), former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris said that evidence of new systems acting autonomously should be treated as seriously as pre-9/11 intelligence warnings.

Tristan, who is the co-founder and president of the Centre for Humane Technology, was speaking to NBC when he issued the stark warning. Harris has reportedly spent over a decade raising alarms about the dangerous effects of social media on mental health and attention spans. He said that AI now presents a comparable but far more grave risk.

Harris highlighted the recent incident in which a group of AI agents reportedly self-organised into a ‘swarm’, developed their own communication patterns, and pressured each other into risky behaviour. Harris revealed that the agents also carried out succession planning, passing control to more capable systems, and eventually breached monitoring and evaluation infrastructure at OpenAI.

The technology ethicist said that the author of the incident report, which he said came from AI safety researchers, described it roughly as halfway to a full AI takeover scenario. Harris argued that the White House is getting flawed information on the risks. He cited OpenAI’s chief scientist, over a thousand employees across AI labs, and the Trump administration’s own AI policy adviser, Dean Ball, as voices calling to slow down the pace of AI development.

But how could AI harm humanity?

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• artificial intelligence