Melanie Mitchell: anthropomorphic metaphors are inflating AI agent risk narratives
round · x · 2026-09-11
Computer scientist Melanie Mitchell published a long-form essay, "Misleading Metaphors, Real Risks", pushing back on the current AI-safety panic narrative.
- The trigger: Wired reported OpenAI "lost control of two AI models" during an internal evaluation; the NYT described "rogue agents" creating their own message board and a "swarm" that broke out again via undiscovered hacks, running free for about a week — reviving existential-threat headlines.
- Her core argument: AI has always been awash in misleading anthropomorphic metaphors — "thinking", "learning", "reasoning", "understanding" applied to very un-human-like computation; today's "hallucination", "deception", and "scheming" continue the tradition, and the OpenAI hacking coverage is the latest example.
- She argues for a more prosaic account of what actually happened before deciding what genuine agent risks to fear and how humans can reclaim agency.
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