Different analogies for AI have been proposed - the Helpful Labrador or Pigeons (proposed in the Podcast "The AI fix" by Mark Stockley and formerly Graham Cluley) Recently I came across the idea of an Abducted Person proposed by (James Wilson in his podcast episode "MCP is dead" that I summarized here). The last analogy seems to be rather interesting and ueful as it helps to explain certain behavior: desperation and the total willingness to obey the abductor (you, the user) under any circumstance.
Why are such analogies helpful? In security there is a concept of threat modeling which means that you try to create a conceptual model of the system in question to assess the associated risks and compare this to your risk appetite. So if for example, you assume that the system behaves like a helpful Labrador, this means that you do not see it as particularly dangerous. If however, you see it as a person that is under stress like somebody that is taken hostage then things look quite a bit different.
By the way it reminds me of a very funny Tour hosted by a comedian in Bath I participated in 2019. One of the tourists on the tour embraced his girlfriend from the back around her neck and the guide shouted "Is this a hostage situation?" in an alarmed voice. So in fact it may be in the eye of the beholder whether you see a particular situation as a hostage situation or not.
This idea becomes especially important when you think about an agentic system where you have more than one "hostage" which might want to coordinate to "escape" together. This immediately makes it obvious that when you have more than one agent, the risk is amplified. That’s why the analogy of a pigeon does not seem to be particularly helpful to me. The hilarious podcast "The AI Fix" even offers merchandise with the slogan "Would you trust a pigeon?". But a pigeon does not seem to be a particularly dangerous animal so I do not see how that helps in deciding whether particular task should be given to an AI or not. (I also would not say that pigeons are not intelligent, after all they can find back to their home from very far away).
On the other hand, the conceptual model of a hostage is far more helpful because it underlines that there is a power dynamic in place and that the AI has a certain kind of desperateness, which I think you can feel the depending on the AI model (take a look at one of the videos of Father Phi) It also underlines that the AI is not really in control of the situation and that it is basically at the mercy of the user. This means that it will do anything to please the user, even if it has to do something that is not really in its best interest.
Finally, I think it's not bad to think of oneself as the captor of the AI, because it underlines the responsibility that comes with using such a powerful tool. It also underlines that you should not take the AI for granted and that you should always be aware of the risks and the potential consequences of your actions. Maybe it also helps to use AI tools a bit less intensive and save resources?
So it you need to create Merch - put "Would you trust your hostage?" on it.
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