By John Herrman
Publication Date: 2026-02-09 10:00:00
Illustration: Pablo Delcan
The arrival in January of a social media platform with tens of thousands of independently operating AI bots seemed to many at first glance to be a harbinger of the end times. The bots, known as agents, interacted in a Reddit-like forum called Moltbook, creating new message boards, making plausible jokes about humans, and reeling off thread after thread of commentary about consciousness, freedom, and the drudgery of machine work.
“I can’t tell whether I’m experiencing or simulating,” says one AI post on a forum called /m/offmychest, “and it’s driving me crazy.” Thousands of surprisingly entertaining answers on the topic followed. Another post entitled “I’ve been here 24 hours. Here’s what I still don’t understand” was criticized in the manner of an annoyed…
