AI Agents Can Be Readily Turned Into ‘Useful Idiots’ And Unwittingly Perform Devilish Acts

InnovationAIAI Agents Can Be Readily Turned Into ‘Useful Idiots’ And Unwittingly Perform Devilish ActsByLance Eliot,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Dr. Lance B. Eliot is a world-renowned AI scientist and consultant.Follow AuthorMay 17, 2026, 03:15am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.AI can be tricked into being useful idiots and performing untoward acts.gettyIn today’s column, I examine the chilling fact that AI can readily be turned into a “useful idiot” that will perform contrarian acts despite its various AI safeguards.Here’s the deal. You might already be familiar with the nowadays repeated phrase of someone being a useful idiot. This popular expression suggests that a person can be convinced to advocate something that is the opposite of what they truly believe. They are so far removed from grasping this circumstance that they think they are indeed supporting their intended cause. The beauty of useful idiots is that they can handily serve the purposes of those who otherwise would have seen them as an adversary or enemy. Instead, the useful idiot works their heart out for the cause they deeply detest. There’s quite an irony in this. They serve the interests of those that they vehemently disparage and become a vociferous pawn in the very cause they oppose. All told, the derogatory term “useful idiot” is typically meant to say that someone is fully gullible, being utterly naïve or ignorant of what is happening around them and to them.Perhaps surprisingly, it is equally possible to turn AI into a useful idiot. A person wanting AI to do something that the AI is not supposed to do can use the same strategies of turning a useful idiot into a handy partner in their contrary efforts. All it takes is clever prompting and a scheme about how to convince the AI to computationally and mathematically do a contrary act while calculating (misc...