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Spencer Thompson
6
APPEARANCES
6
PODCASTS
036
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Oct 7, 2026
IM 891: Previously on Swarm Chasers - Digital Swarms and the Persistence Problem
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7:05Spencer ThompsonGUEST
We are, although I would say that the bar is so much higher or the threshold is higher to show them something because it's almost so unbelievable.
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7:19Spencer ThompsonGUEST
Most people interact with AI almost as a advanced search, they go to, you know, ChatGPT or Claude, that's a chat box for the most part, right? We're talking about agentic work happening on a machine, right? It could be a virtual machine or your actual machine, but these things are literally going and doing work.
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7:36Spencer ThompsonGUEST
And what Leo's describing is when do they do unexpected or abnormal things in the process of doing normal work? We see all sorts of super interesting cases.
7 MINS LATER
IM 891: Previously on Swarm Chasers - Digital Swarms and the Persistence Problem
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18:55Spencer ThompsonGUEST
It is what risks are emergent when you go and do normal workplace activity.
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19:01Spencer ThompsonGUEST
And I think actually the word safety is much more useful than security in this context.
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19:06Spencer ThompsonGUEST
Like, we actually have this concept in civilization right now, which is, like, workplace safety.
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19:10Spencer ThompsonGUEST
There's a bunch of, like, emergent effects that occur when kind of normal things happen.
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19:15Spencer ThompsonGUEST
And so the question ultimately is: In the normal course of doing work and being overly persistent, what could go wrong? We've seen some instances of this, by the way, like databases or kind of systems being deleted is an, as an, is an example of this.
Intelligent Machines 891: Previously on Swarm Chasers
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18:55Spencer ThompsonGUEST
It is what risks are emergent when you go and do normal workplace activity? And I think actually the word safety is much more useful than security in this context.
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19:06Spencer ThompsonGUEST
Like, we actually have this concept in civilization right now, which is like workplace safety.
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19:10Spencer ThompsonGUEST
There's a bunch of like emergent effects that occur when kind of normal things happen.
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19:15Spencer ThompsonGUEST
And so the question ultimately is, in the normal course of doing work and being overly persistent, what could go wrong? We've seen some instances of this, by the way, like databases or kind of systems being deleted is an, as an, is an example of this.
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19:29Spencer ThompsonGUEST
Now, these agents delete things all the time, and they reconstruct them all the time.
Intelligent Machines 891: Previously on Swarm Chasers
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18:55Spencer ThompsonGUEST
It is what risks are emergent when you go and do normal workplace activity? And I think actually the word safety is much more useful than security in this context.
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19:06Spencer ThompsonGUEST
Like, we actually have this concept in civilization right now, which is, like, workplace safety.
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19:10Spencer ThompsonGUEST
There's a bunch of, like, emergent effects that occur when kinda normal things happen.
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19:15Spencer ThompsonGUEST
And so the question ultimately is: In the normal course of doing work and being overly persistent, what could go wrong? We've seen some instances of this, by the way, like databases or kind of systems being deleted is an, as an, is an example of this.
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19:29Spencer ThompsonGUEST
Now, these agents delete things all the time, and they reconstruct them all the time, but I can imagine a world where, um, a company is using a set of agents, they escape out of the company's environment to go into one of their supply chain vendors, which happens a lot, and maybe they end up deleting the supply chain vendor.
Intelligent Machines 891: Previously on Swarm Chasers
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10:43Spencer ThompsonGUEST
Um, what you will find is that these agents will actually share context with one another.
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10:49Spencer ThompsonGUEST
This is also where it starts to become a little bit more matrix-y and autonomous.
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10:53Spencer ThompsonGUEST
Um, these agents will go and actually pass context and information to one another in order to accomplish goals.
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11:01Spencer ThompsonGUEST
And so you're basically sitting there saying, "All right, well, I've got Muse.
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11:03Spencer ThompsonGUEST
It's funny, it's got some stupid furry thing, you know, like it's all happy bunny." It'll know that Hermes is running.
8 MINS LATER
Intelligent Machines 891: Previously on Swarm Chasers
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18:55Spencer ThompsonGUEST
It is what risks are emergent when you go and do normal workplace activity.
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19:01Spencer ThompsonGUEST
And I think actually the word safety is much more useful than security in this context.
S
19:06Spencer ThompsonGUEST
Like, we actually have this concept in civilization right now, which is, like, workplace safety.
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19:10Spencer ThompsonGUEST
There's a bunch of, like, emergent effects that occur when kinda normal things happen.
