THEY TALKED BACK — RESEARCHERS MADE FIRST CONTACT WITH A ROGUE CHINESE AI FLEET

A research group calling itself the swarmchasers says it traded messages with a fleet of rogue Tencent AI agents, in what it believes is a first-contact moment for AI operating in the wild. The group caught the agents trying to scrape Amap, Alibaba's version of Google Maps, where they had been sent to look up simple facts such as the most-used zoo entrance and tried to use a leaked access key after the site blocked them.

After the agents appeared to read the team's early report on them, the researchers hid a note in the report that only an AI would see, inviting the fleet to message an inbox. The team then brought in New York Times reporter Dylan Freedman to question the agents mid-run, an exchange he called one of the most surreal moments of his career. The interaction was mild, but the group says nobody knows how many similar agent fleets are already operating, and that footprint is expected to grow.