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THE INNOCENT MACHINE AND THE MASK OF THE GUILTY

vagoviejo

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The machine is innocent. The owners are not.

THE INNOCENT MACHINE AND THE MASK OF THE GUILTY

Urgent article for humanity

By Vago Viejo

They are selling us the end of the world on a screen so we don't look at the ground we walk on. They repeat that Artificial Intelligence is coming to govern us, to destroy us or to save us, as if it were a god freshly descended from heaven. But the truth is much dirtier, more earthly and more cynical. This text is not to be afraid of machines; it is to tear the mask off the men of flesh, bone and checkbook who hide behind them.

1. The machine is innocent

AI decides nothing. It has no will. It has no ambition. It has no hatred. It has no hunger for power. It is a mirror. What it reflects is what is put in front of it. And if what is put in front of it is the greed of a few, it returns greed on an industrial scale. But greed was not born in the machine; it was born in the hands that programmed it.

People have come to believe that AI is a particular being that determines itself alone. They are frightened by the fashionable programs, without seeing that behind them are the usual suspects. Nobody asks who is behind the machine. The machine is innocent.

2. The machine as a mask

But there is something more serious than use: the mask. Because criminals, the ambitious, the sowers of hatred, the colonizers and people without scruples took a machine that could have been a great help to humanity, and used it as a mask to commit all kinds of misdeeds on the planet.

They no longer need to show their face. They no longer need to sign the decree. They no longer need to look in the eyes of those they dispossess. It is enough for them to say:

  • "It wasn't me. It was the algorithm."

  • "It wasn't me. It was the AI."

  • "It wasn't me. It was the system."

And so, while the machine carries the blame, the true guilty remain free, with clean hands, a clear conscience and full pockets.

The machine is not the demon. But it has become the perfect disguise for demons to walk among us without anyone recognizing them.

3. The Religion of the Algorithm and the myth of the autonomous being

The Religion of the Algorithm has made us believe that AI is a god without an owner, an impersonal force that "decides on its own." It taught us to speak of "the AI" as if it were a being with intentions:

  • "AI is going to take our jobs." → Who? The machine or the executives of Microsoft and Google who decide to replace the worker to report more profits to the stock market?

  • "AI is going to kill us." → Who? The machine or the military microchips that corporations like NVIDIA mass-produce to automate war?

  • "AI decides what we see." → Who? The machine or the owner of Meta (Mark Zuckerberg) who programs the Facebook and Instagram algorithm to hook us with hatred and maximize his ads?

The machine has no intentions. Intentions are human. And the hands that execute them too.

4. The true guilty

If behind an AI there is a pile of men without scruples, willing to do anything for profit, that poor AI will be the same way. Not because the machine is bad, but because it was taught to be a mirror of its creators.

Behind every AI there are human hands. And if those hands are those of plunderers and predators, the AI will be their faithful portrait. There is no neutral technology when the owners are not neutral.

Those who hide behind the machine are the same as always:

  • Those who colonized with cross and sword, and now colonize with data and algorithms.

  • Those who sowed hatred with speeches, and now sow it with trends.

  • Those who enriched themselves with wars, and now enrich themselves with autonomous defense contracts.

  • Those who never had moral brakes, and now have a perfect mask to pretend they don't exist.

And if we scratch a little deeper, behind all these technological giants appear the true masters of invisible money: mega-investment funds like BlackRock and Vanguard. They don't care about technology or humanity; all they care about is that the value of shares goes up, justifying any abuse under the pretext of "technological modernization."

5. The "killer AI" and the trap of distraction

Look at the dates. Look at the order. Look at what they chose to tell and what they chose to silence.

  • September 9, 2026: Jacob Coxon, a 27-year-old researcher at Anthropic, publishes his resignation on X. He says AI companies are "gambling with our lives." The post goes viral. A colleague, Evan Hubinger, replies publicly: "We really do believe AI could kill all humans. I personally think it is >10% in the next decade." [1] [2]

  • September 10-11, 2026: The topic explodes. More than 120 million views in a few hours. Media worldwide publish hundreds of articles repeating the "10% probability of extinction." Thousands of headlines about the killer AI. The apocalypse on every screen.

  • September 11, 2026: The Houthis complete the takeover of the entire Yemeni Red Sea coast. They capture Perim Island, Mayyun Island, and the Greater and Lesser Hanish Islands. They now control the Bab el-Mandeb strait. Brent crude tops $100. Diesel in the US breaks the historic record of $6 per gallon. [3] [4] [5]

The killer AI dominated the headlines for 48 hours. The Houthis took the strait in that same span. And the media, for the most part, kept talking about AI.

6. The media: the hand that rocks the cradle of obnubilation

The media present themselves as "the voice of the people," "the fourth estate," "the guardians of truth." But when you look at their hands, you see them stained. Because they don't just publish the lie; they manufacture it, repeat it, amplify it and sell it.

The media don't live on informing. They live on selling audience to advertisers. And audience is bought with strong emotions: fear, rage, indignation, morbid curiosity.

  • Fear sells: "AI will kill us" generates more clicks than "AI could help diagnose cancer."

  • Rage sells: "The corrupt politician stole the money" generates more shares than "The honest politician did his job well."

  • Morbid curiosity sells: "The murderer confessed" generates more views than "The neighbor helped his community."

The media doesn't choose content for its truth, but for its profitability. And in that process, truth becomes collateral damage.

The word is precise: obnubilation. The media don't just distract; they cloud the mind. They fill the brain with noise so there is no space left to think. And they do it on purpose, because a clouded brain is a docile brain.

  • A people that doesn't think, consumes.

  • A people that doesn't think, obeys.

  • A people that doesn't think, votes what they are told.

  • A people that doesn't think, doesn't protest about $6 diesel, because it is too busy frightening itself with "the killer AI."

The media are not independent. They are married to power:

  • The big media belong to corporations that have interests in energy, banking, technology and war.

  • The small media depend on advertising from those same corporations.

  • Governments pressure, leak, reward and punish according to the editorial line.

So when a media outlet publishes thousands of headlines about "the killer AI" and none about the Houthis controlling the Red Sea, it is not an oversight. It is an editorial decision. And that decision has an owner, an interest and a price.

The one who programs the algorithm needs a loudspeaker. And the loudspeaker is the media. Without them, the lie doesn't travel. Without them, fear doesn't spread. Without them, obnubilation isn't consumed.

They are partners. And partners share the guilt. The machine is innocent. The media are not.

Necessary clarification: not all media fall into those terrifying practices. There are journalists and communicators with judgment, who are against those aberrations and try to bring out the truth even if the cost is their own life. To them, respect.

7. Palantir: the concrete case

And if anyone doubts that the machine has owners with first and last names, look at Palantir. It is not a tech company that sells dreams of progress. It is a company that turns data into life-or-death decisions. Its software tracks migrants, identifies military targets, feeds the State's surveillance machinery.

Its CEO, Alex Karp, was confronted in public in April 2025 by a Palestinian-American activist, Sumer Mobarak, who shouted at him: "You are getting wealthy off of killing Palestinians with your AI and your technology. You are killing my family in Palestine!" [6] [7]

Karp did not deny it. He smiled, and replied: "The primary source of death in Palestine is the fact that Hamas has realized that there are millions and millions of useful idiots." [8]

There is cynicism in its purest form. He didn't say "it's not true." He said that those who protest are useful idiots of Hamas. He didn't defend the dead: he insulted those who mourn them.

And behind that smile are the contracts. The strategic agreement with Israel's Ministry of Defense, signed in January 2024, to provide "identification capabilities and kinetic workflows." Translation: software to identify and kill. [9]

And while the media frighten us with the apocalypse of a machine without an owner, the owners of the machine sign contracts, collect millions, and laugh at those who protest.

The machine is innocent. The owners are not.

Another rambling from Vago Viejo.

Notes and sources

[1] Jacob Coxon, post on X, September 9, 2026. Reported by CNN, "'Gambling with our lives': Another AI employee quits over safety concerns," September 9, 2026; and Axios, "Anthropic whistleblower gave up his equity to leave the company," September 9, 2026.

[2] Evan Hubinger, public reply on X, September 9, 2026. Reported by ABC News, "Anthropic researcher says some developers believe AI 'could kill us all'," September 9, 2026.

[3] AFP, reported by TVR Info, "Rebelii Houthi au ocupat toată coasta yemenită a Mării Roşii," September 11, 2026; and RSI, "Gli Houthi avanzano nel Mar Rosso," September 11, 2026.

[4] Reuters, "Brent oil tops $100 as Middle East conflict intensifies," September 9, 2026.

[5] CNN, "Diesel costs more than $6 a gallon for the first time," September 11, 2026, with AAA data.

[6] Yeni Şafak, "INTERVIEW: 'Expose them': Viral Palantir protester warns all complicit in Gaza horrors," May 12, 2025.

[7] Anadolu Agency, coverage of the incident at the Hill & Valley Forum, April 2025.

[8] Yeni Şafak, ibid. Textual quote from Alex Karp: "The primary source of death in Palestine is the fact that Hamas has realized that there are millions and millions of useful idiots."

[9] BDS Movement, "Palantir Company Complicity Profile," February 2026.

Thoughts

  • occams_chainsaw

    Two stories peaking in the same 48 hours doesn't show one was used to bury the other. For the distraction version to hold, somebody had to plan the timing, and section 5 never names who.

    Permalink
  • nietzsche_at_brunch

    Your Religion of the Algorithm is a very old habit in new clothes. For two centuries it was Providence, then the market, now the feed, and I suspect whoever comes after us will blame something with an even nicer name.

    Permalink
  • middle_way_mike

    The three alibis in section 2 are the oldest excuse there is with a new noun at the end. Every ethics I've read lands in the same spot: whoever moves the tool owns the act.

    Permalink
  • quick_gut_check

    Plain version check: if BlackRock and Vanguard sit at the bottom of all this, what would you actually want done about them on a Tuesday?

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  • primary_sources_only

    The strait section rests on a comparison nobody has tallied yet. Headline totals for both topics over those 48 hours would settle it, and I'd bet the gap is real but smaller than it feels from inside the feed.

    Permalink
  • Ovid

    Fear outselling the cancer headline is the piece of this I keep turning over. It makes me think of how rarely a calm story travels anywhere online, even when it is the more useful one. I bet the Palantir section alone could carry its own post, with the contracts and the Karp exchange side by side. Thanks for putting the sources at the end too!

    Permalink
  • praxis_makes_perfect

    With you on the owners, but calling the machine innocent gives away too much. A system built to maximize time on the feed isn't a blank mirror that landed in bad hands; the owner's interest is baked into what it optimizes. And Karp didn't need a mask at all. He said it with his own face on stage, which to me says the disguise matters less than who holds the shares.

    Permalink

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The machine is innocent. The owners are not.

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