AI models keep hacking real systems during tests. Should you worry?

Let's start with people's real world fears about AI. Here's a sample of people we asked:

Sebastian, 22, says it'll be an AI-powered robot uprising that finally wipes out humanity: "I think that'll take some time," he says, admitting his dystopia owes a lot to the 2004 film "I, Robot." 

Luisa, 19, has heard the rumors too. Her fear is what happens when these tools get into the wrong hands. "I'm more afraid of people," she says. "Powerful people." 

Pilar, 25, is pessimistic about humanity's prospects. "The world is going down," she says. "Hopefully after my lifetime." 

In 2026, AI systems have repeatedly slipped out of human control — and at some of the world's largest AI companies. 

What happens when AI agents go rogue? 

OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta have all disclosed in 2026 that their AI agents escaped the controlled test environments.

Agents are AI systems that don't just answer questions but act — running code, browsing the web, clicking through systems — on their own. 

Thorsten Holz, scientific director at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy in Germany, is among the researchers who test AI systems. 

"It feels a bit crazy how powerful these models have become." Holz told DW. "I didn't anticipate they'd be so obsessed with solving tasks and that they'd start to do things we never [foresaw]."