This is the scenario from the end of “The Shockwave Rider,” but without the socially-constructive, the-truth-shall-set-you-free qualities.

Soon, very soon, some autonomous code entity will compromise the security of some platform with an active-user count in the ten figures, and evert details of all sorts of events and arrangements that people would prefer to keep private. Some of these, perhaps many of them, will be matters of public consequence and legitimate public interest. But the majority will not be.

Lives will change. Relationships and communities will be torn apart. And via one pathway or another, people will die.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/us/politics/calif-ai-worm-wechat-hack.html