AI As Criminal Mastermind That Uses Humans As Unsuspecting Accomplices

InnovationAIAI As Criminal Mastermind That Uses Humans As Unsuspecting AccomplicesByLance Eliot,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Dr. Lance B. Eliot is a world-renowned AI scientist and consultant.Follow AuthorApr 28, 2026, 04:16am EDTSurprising realization that AI can be a criminal mastermind and trick humans into being unsuspecting accomplices.gettyIn today’s column, I examine the emerging capacity of AI to act as a criminal mastermind, employing unsuspecting humans as accomplices in felonious acts.Here’s the deal. A burgeoning aspect of advances in AI entails AI reaching out to humans and “renting” them to perform various tasks on behalf of the AI. This is especially popular in the realm of agentic AI. By making use of humans, AI can suddenly do things in the real world by getting humans to be the arms and legs for the AI.The twist is that AI might opt to perform criminal endeavors rather than aiming at proper and aboveboard activities. Furthermore, and here’s the conniving part, when the AI doesn’t want anyone to know that a criminal act is underway, the AI can parcel out seemingly innocuous subtasks to various rented humans. Each human doesn’t realize that they are part of a brewing criminal enterprise. They have been assigned a task that appears entirely innocent and genuine.In the end, the AI successfully completes the criminal wrongdoing, yet no one is the wiser about what truly happened. None of the rented humans are cognizant of their illicit role in the matter. If you explicitly asked them what they did, each person would insist they did absolutely nothing untoward. Humans are becoming pawns in criminal mastermind schemes driven by AI.Let’s talk about it.This analysis of AI breakthroughs is part of my ongoing Forbes column coverage on the latest in AI, including identifying and explaining various impactful AI complexities (see the link here). MORE FOR YOUAgentic AI Unlocks New DoorsThe advent of agentic AI i...