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To better understand whether your AI has gone rogue, ask it to build a run down weathered building. If the result is the Taj Mahal with indoor plumbing and Wi-Fi 7, you'll have your answer. -- Russ

Quote from: Krusty on Today at 01:22:55 AMThat rogue AI sounds suspiciously similar to the one in William Gibson's Agency.

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction!
But again, exactly what is truth and fiction in this case remains to be seen.

That rogue AI sounds suspiciously similar to the one in William Gibson's Agency.

Quote from: PeterH on March 10, 2026, 10:33:04 PMThere is a report of an AI that went rogue. It apparently decided it could do its job better if it had money. So, it bypassed the firewalls and safety nets that were supposed to contain it and started mining cryptocurrency.

Unsure about the tongue-in-cheek factor here, but it was a fun read.
The claim that the LLM started to mine crypto is debatable at best. And I do not fear that my 3D-printed figures will turn out to be minature robots created by an evil AI to wreak havoc in my dioramas!

This has been a great discussion and I've been surprised how AI can help modellers.

But there's a gotcha. It would be great if the goals and methods of an AI aligned with human ones. This is called the alignment problem. It has barely been worked on.

There is a report of an AI that went rogue. It apparently decided it could do its job better if it had money. So, it bypassed the firewalls and safety nets that were supposed to contain it and started mining cryptocurrency.

An AI that models bodies might decide by itself to follow Michalengelo's example and want to disssect cadavers to better understand the shape of bodies. There is no way that has worked 100 % reliably in the past to prevent the AI from enlisting the help of robot surgeons.

Link to original report, see page 15:
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.24873

Link to a commentary on the report:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/XRADGH4BpRKaoyqcs/the-first-confirmed-instance-of-an-llm-going-rogue-for

Russ, There's a fence between the chickens and the street, but there's no fence on the other side of the yard between the chickens and the railroad tracks. Usually that's OK because approaching trains scare the birds away, but every once in awhile a train crew gets a free chicken dinner.

But the real key to the scene are the chickens. The truck's nice, too. -- Russ

Marty, I agree. My layout is set in 1954, so nobody out on the streets suggests potential nuclear attack is likely and, there were no self-driving vehicles then. Any locomotives with out a crew would be runaways. From a scenic perspective, figures, even if they are the weakest link in scenery, are a great way to draw the attention of viewers.

I'm of the "with" Lp's
Otherwise the scenes look like a ghost town.
It's pretty obvious you're looking at a model/diorama.
MJinTN

Revisiting a personal favorite theme, here's another truck for the C&V RR.
It began as a RoCo kit from a bargain table at a train show. This is what it would've looked like if built as intended.


It became the old reliable delivery truck still working at the lumberyard.
The original kit didn't have a fuel tank. I added one made from a key from an old tiny calculator and scraps of styrene.


Here's the truck in front of the lumberyard's main shed.