The Devious People Problem: 12 Alarming Ways AI Can Be Used Against Us
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) has long been painted as the bogeyman of the future. It’s a chilling narrative that has gripped the collective imagination: a world where machines become so intelligent, so powerful, they surpass human intelligence and trigger our extinction. This apocalyptic scenario, while admittedly thrilling and deserving of contemplation, has a dangerous side effect. It’s a sensational distraction, a smoke screen that conceals the immediate and very real dangers AI is already posing to our society. These threats are not theoretical, nor are they in some distant future. They are here, they are now, and they are insidiously ingrained in our daily digital lives.
Slight-Of-Hand Diversion Technique
While the tech giants and the media are busy raising the specter of an AI apocalypse, they’re cleverly diverting our attention from the pressing issues we should be tackling today. The truth is, we don’t need to wait for AGI to experience the dark side of AI. The AI systems we have now, the so-called narrow or weak AI, are already raising serious ethical and privacy concerns. They may not have the intellect to take over the world, but they do have the capacity to significantly harm individuals, businesses, and even entire governments if misused or left unchecked.
It’s time we shift our focus from worrying about the rise of super-intelligent machines to understanding and addressing the threats posed by the AI technologies currently in use. The existential risk we face isn’t just about our potential obsolescence in the face of machine intelligence. It’s about the erosion of our privacy, our freedom, our security, and our trust in the digital landscape that is increasingly shaping our world. We need to address the AI threats that are already here.
The Devious People Dark Side: 12 Alarming Ways AI Can be Used Against Us
Below are twelve real-world, AI-enabled nightmares that could wreak havoc on individuals, corporations, and governments. No need for superintelligence or AGI; these horrors can be unleashed with existing AI tools.
The Puppeteer:
AI-driven personalization exploits personal data to tailor ads, continually refining them for maximum impact. The result? Subtle mind control.
The Deceiver:
Deepfakes and misinformation employ hyper-realism to smear reputations and sabotage democratic systems.
The Thief:
AI-empowered hacking executes mass data breaches, exposing unsuspecting individuals and corporations to significant risks.
The Puppet Master:
Financial market manipulation employs AI trading bots and messaging bots to control stock prices and wreak havoc on markets.
The Bigot:
AI-enforced discrimination in areas like law enforcement and recruitment can perpetuate biases, leading to grave injustice.
The Watcher:
Mass surveillance leveraged by governments employs AI technologies for intrusive monitoring, resulting in potential infringement of civil liberties.
The Biased Healer:
In healthcare, skewed data can result in incorrect or inadequate treatments for marginalized groups.
The Unfair Trader:
AI-driven price discrimination uses consumer data to adjust prices, promoting discriminatory pricing practices.
The Warlord:
In the realm of cyberwarfare, AI can be weaponized to disrupt critical infrastructure and enable devastating cyberattacks.
The Peeping Tom:
AI’s handling of personal, corporate, or government data raises serious concerns about data privacy and misuse.
The Mind Reader:
AI-powered emotional recognition can be exploited, leading to the invasion of personal privacy and manipulation of emotional responses for profit.
The Saboteur:
AI in autonomous systems, from self-driving cars to drones, can be hijacked, leading to potential disasters and threats to public safety.

The Urgency of Data Privacy Laws
These threats we speak of aren’t hypothetical scenarios reserved for speculative fiction or academic debates. They are immediate, pressing issues requiring our focused attention and swift action. As AI continues to permeate every aspect of our lives, the importance of robust data privacy laws becomes increasingly apparent. We are generating colossal volumes of data every single day, information that paints an intimate picture of our lives, habits, preferences, and vulnerabilities.
This data can and is being exploited, often without our knowledge or consent. The need for comprehensive legislation that safeguards our privacy in the digital age is not just an important consideration – it’s an urgent imperative.
Alongside privacy, the question of ethical AI practices is another significant challenge we face today. We are dealing with systems that have the power to influence public opinion, dictate consumer behavior, manipulate financial markets, and even determine life and death in contexts such as healthcare or autonomous vehicles. As such, it is crucial to define what constitutes ethical use of AI.
Clear, universally accepted guidelines are needed to ensure AI technologies are developed and used in a manner that respects human rights, promotes fairness, and prevents harm. This goes beyond simply avoiding bias or discrimination. Ethical AI also involves considerations of transparency, accountability, and the right to human oversight.
Protecting Innovation or Enabling Monopolies?
The AI industry often presents itself as a benign force, advocating for self-regulation under the guise of fostering innovation and preventing governmental overreach. Yet, this approach can be problematic. Without external oversight, there’s the risk of lapses in ethical standards and privacy protections, all under the banner of technological progress.
On the other hand, if governments step in and impose strict regulations, we might encounter an unintended consequence. The tech giants, with their vast resources and influence, could navigate and even manipulate these rules to their advantage, further solidifying their dominance. Meanwhile, smaller companies, burdened by regulatory compliance, might find themselves unable to compete effectively, stifling diversity and innovation in the AI space.
This potential catch-22 situation underscores the importance of carefully crafted, balanced regulations. We need laws that protect individual rights and promote ethical practices without stifling innovation or enabling monopolies. This is certainly not a simple task, but it’s an essential one if we wish to navigate the complex, ever-evolving landscape of AI in a way that serves the best interests of all stakeholders.

Wake Up to the Reality: AI Isn’t Just a Future Threat
Artificial Intelligence is not a looming threat of the future; it’s a pressing issue of the present that demands our urgent attention. The public narrative often gets caught up in the thrill and trepidation of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) – the idea of AI systems that possess the ability to understand, learn, adapt, and implement knowledge across a broad array of tasks at a human level. Yet, in our fascination with AGI, we risk overlooking the significant and tangible risks that current AI technologies pose to our privacy, security, and society at large.
The enchanting allure of AGI, with its promises and fears of superhuman intelligence, can act as a captivating distraction from the immediate and palpable threats. These include data breaches, privacy invasion, unfair algorithmic biases, and the unchecked influence of AI on our lives and decisions. While we deliberate on the potential threats of AGI, the exigent issues at hand risk being marginalized, their significance dwindling in the shadow of the grand narrative of AGI.
The true menace of AI is not solely about an uncertain future; it’s a present-day reality with far-reaching implications. It’s lurking in the shadows of our digital age, subtly influencing our decisions, shaping our perceptions, and altering the fabric of our societies. It’s not the prospect of rogue superintelligent AI that should keep us awake at night, but the current AI technologies, left unchecked and unregulated, quietly molding the contours of our world. The time is ripe for us to shift our focus from speculative future threats to the real, tangible issues of the present and act urgently and resolve to address them.
The Devious People Problem: 12 Alarming Ways AI Can Be Used Against Us
Built in 1954, the Canyon Ferry Dam has stood as an engineering marvel, powering over 100,000 homes.
Modern civilization is built on precision, innovation, and control—but when one failure occurs in an interconnected system, the consequences can be unstoppable. The Canyon Ferry Disaster is more than a catastrophe; it is a cautionary tale of how a single breach can unravel decades of progress, setting off a chain reaction of destruction that no one can stop.
What began as a fracture in one dam quickly escalated into the largest infrastructure collapse in American history. One after another, dams crumbled, rivers swelled beyond control, and cities vanished beneath an unrelenting flood. The Missouri River, once a lifeline for millions, became a weapon of mass destruction, leaving entire states submerged and the nation in chaos.
This is not just the story of a disaster—it is the story of how fragile our modern world truly is. This account will trace the slow-motion nightmare that unfolded over twelve days, the desperate evacuations, and the lessons we must learn to ensure this never happens again. Because if history has taught us anything, it is this: when the first dam breaks, the clock starts ticking.
1. Setting the Stage: A Calm Before the Chaos
The Missouri River glides silently beneath the warm glow of an early spring sunset, its surface undisturbed, almost tranquil. The vast Canyon Ferry Reservoir stretches to the horizon, a colossal body of water swollen to its limits by the seasonal snowmelt. Beneath its smooth facade, 134 billion cubic feet of water press against the towering Canyon Ferry Dam, a monolith of stone and steel standing guard over Montana’s rugged landscape.
Built in 1954, the dam is more than just an engineering marvel—it is a lifeline. Its hydroelectric turbines provide power to over 100,000 homes, its waters irrigate thousands of acres of farmland, and its reservoir draws boaters, anglers, and campers seeking escape into Montana’s wilderness. At 210 feet high and 3,280 feet long, it is a sentinel of progress, a testament to mankind’s ability to tame nature’s fury.
But below the surface, unseen and unforgiving forces are at play.
Downstream, the Missouri River winds its way through a chain of dams, each a critical link in the region’s infrastructure. The Hauser Dam, just 14 miles away, holds 5 billion cubic feet of water in check. Farther down, 30 miles from Canyon Ferry, the Holter Dam contains another 12 billion cubic feet. Together, these structures balance power and control, protecting Helena, Great Falls, and dozens of smaller communities nestled along the riverbanks.
Beyond them, the Missouri River Basin sprawls across the heartland, home to over 2.5 million people who depend on its waters for drinking, industry, and agriculture. While only a fraction of them live within the immediate floodplain, a catastrophic failure here would send shockwaves across the Midwest, disrupting power grids, supply chains, and entire economies.
Yet, on this serene evening, there are no warnings, no sirens—only a quiet, uneasy stillness. A handful of anglers cast their lines into the glassy waters, unaware that history is about to change.
Because at this very moment, a plan is in motion. A deliberate act of destruction has been set into place—one designed to exploit the river at its most vulnerable. The conspirators know the stakes. They understand the chain reaction that a single breach will unleash. And they know that within hours, this calm reservoir will become an unstoppable force of devastation.
For now, the only sounds are the splash of fish breaking the surface and the soft rustling of wind through the pines. The Canyon Ferry Dam stands, silent and unyielding.
But not for long.

The Canyon Ferry Reservoir has long been a hidden gem tucked into the mountains of Montana.
2. The Prelude to Destruction
Dressed in unremarkable fishing gear, two men unload a motorized raft on the quiet eastern edge of the Canyon Ferry Reservoir. To an untrained observer, they appear to be ordinary fishermen, blending seamlessly into the tranquil surroundings. But their actions—subtle, deliberate—betray their true intent. Weighted backpacks filled with explosives, carefully constructed to withstand the pressure and turbulence of deep water, are lowered into the raft. The payload, consisting of seven interconnected explosive packs, is designed to deliver a synchronized detonation capable of breaching even the most robust dam structures.
The dam's spillway—its Achilles' heel—is their target. The Canyon Ferry Dam, holding back 134 billion cubic feet of water, stands as a critical point in the Missouri River’s intricate hydrological system. A breach here would unleash catastrophic downstream consequences. The Hauser Dam, 14 miles downstream and containing 5 billion cubic feet of water, would likely fail within hours. Holter Dam, located 30 miles from Canyon Ferry and holding 12 billion cubic feet, would inevitably collapse under the combined pressure. Together, these three dams control the flow of water through a basin that directly supports over 300,000 residents in Montana while indirectly impacting millions across the Midwest.
Under the cover of nightfall, the perpetrators navigate their raft with care, steering away from any prying eyes or patrol boats. The reservoir, spanning 10 miles, offers them plenty of space to operate in relative isolation. As they approach the dam’s spillway—a point they meticulously identified as the structural weak spot—they move with precision.
Their explosives are tethered along a cable designed to span the height of the dam’s foundation. Each pack is carefully positioned at calculated depths to maximize the impact of the detonation, ensuring that the initial blast will penetrate the earth and concrete barrier holding back the massive reservoir. The tether is anchored securely to the spillway wall, and the waterproof timers are activated. The countdown begins, set to deliver devastation at precisely 12:02 a.m.
The two men work in silence, their practiced efficiency reflecting months of planning. They know the stakes: a breach at Canyon Ferry will initiate a chain reaction, leading to the catastrophic failure of dams further downstream. As they finish their task, the duo vanishes into the surrounding wilderness, leaving no trace of their presence.
This single act sets the stage for a disaster that will reshape the lives of millions. Helena, the state capital located 23 miles from Canyon Ferry, is home to over 30,000 residents who rely on the dam for water, power, and flood control. Beyond Helena, the floodwaters will race toward Great Falls, a city of 58,000, and eventually to the broader Midwest, where the economic and human toll will be felt by millions.
By midnight, the tranquility of the Montana night will give way to an engineered catastrophe as the first moments of destruction begin to unfold.

At precisely 12:02 am, the stillness of the Montana night is shattered.
3.) The Midnight Call: Emergency Crews Mobilize
At precisely 12:02 a.m., the stillness of the Montana night is shattered. A deep, concussive explosion rips through the base of Canyon Ferry Dam, sending shockwaves through the massive concrete structure. The once-unyielding wall of reinforced concrete and earth buckles, and within seconds, a catastrophic breach opens.
The reservoir, swollen with 134 billion cubic feet of water, unleashes its fury, carving a violent new channel through the canyon walls. A roaring, frothing wave surges downstream at over 30 mph, erasing roads, bridges, and homes in its path.
The Midnight Alarm: Emergency Crews Awaken
Within minutes of the explosion, emergency dispatch centers across Montana light up with frantic calls.
- Montana Highway Patrol officers jolt awake to the shrill ring of their radios, orders crackling through the speakers:
“Evacuate all communities along the Missouri River. The dam is gone.” - Firehouses scramble to respond, their crews grabbing gear in a blur of movement as sirens scream through sleeping towns.
- National Guard units, roused from their beds, are ordered to immediate deployment, their convoys speeding toward the rising disaster.
The news spreads in waves of disbelief and urgency.
- Dispatchers struggle to relay information, overwhelmed by a flood of 911 calls from terrified residents.
- Mayors and emergency coordinators in Helena, Great Falls, and beyond are jolted awake by emergency briefings—what they hear defies belief.
- Hospitals activate mass casualty protocols, clearing emergency rooms for an influx of injured evacuees.
As the first reports filter in—Canyon Ferry is gone, Hauser is failing, Holter is next—one thing becomes clear: this is no localized disaster. This is a national catastrophe in motion.
The First Domino: Hauser and Holter Collapse
By 12:30 a.m., emergency responders in Townsend, East Helena, and Helena are already in the streets, pounding on doors, screaming at people to evacuate. But the flood moves faster than they can warn.
- The Hauser Dam, just 14 miles downstream, is overwhelmed within 45 minutes. The 5 billion cubic feet of water behind it surges free, adding fuel to the already unstoppable wave.
- By 2:00 a.m., Holter Dam (holding 12 billion cubic feet) collapses, its concrete walls buckling under the relentless force.
The Missouri River has now doubled in volume, multiplying its destructive power with each collapse.
A Night of Chaos: Emergency Crews Race Against Time
With every hour that passes, the flood picks up speed, debris, and lives.
- State troopers in helicopters broadcast evacuation orders over loudspeakers, their voices barely audible over the roaring flood.
- Firefighters and medics stage along higher ground, awaiting the injured—but knowing their numbers will quickly overwhelm resources.
- National Guard engineers race to reinforce bridges and levees, but it’s already too late for many.
The entire state of Montana is now in a state of emergency.
Great Falls: The Next City in Line
Located 75 miles downstream, Great Falls (population 58,000) braces for the inevitable. The Missouri River is now a runaway force of destruction, fed by three dam failures.
- At 4:30 a.m., city sirens wail, warning of the incoming wall of water.
- Military helicopters circle above, lighting up the darkness with searchlights as they pull stranded residents from rooftops.
- Highway patrol officers form human chains, dragging people from stalled vehicles on submerged highways.
The Missouri River is no longer a river—it is a weapon, carrying the flood toward even more densely populated regions.
Dawn Brings a Grim Reality
By 6:00 a.m., the rising sun reveals a transformed landscape. The waters now stretch for miles beyond the riverbanks, swallowing entire towns like an advancing ocean.
- Over 500,000 residents across the Missouri River Basin are without power, clean water, or escape routes.
- Railroads, highways, and supply chains are severed, cutting off vital aid to affected areas.
- Rescue crews, exhausted and overwhelmed, begin marking buildings with spray paint, signaling where survivors have been found—and where bodies remain.
The nation wakes up to the biggest disaster in modern American history—and it is only just beginning.

Over the coming days, over 300 bridges will be destroyed!.
4. The Domino Effect: From Montana to the Midwest
The Cascading Failure of Missouri River Dams
As the breach at Canyon Ferry Dam unleashes 134 billion cubic feet of water, a deadly chain reaction begins, overwhelming the Missouri River’s system of dams and reservoirs. The surging flood quickly overcomes the Hauser Dam (14 miles downstream, holding 5 billion cubic feet) and then slams into the Holter Dam (another 15 miles downstream, containing 12 billion cubic feet). Each failure amplifies the flood’s destructive force, accelerating its deadly march across Montana.
Yet, this is just the beginning. The water, now a roaring deluge of over 150 billion cubic feet, is propelled downstream by the Missouri River’s rapid elevation drop—a geographical feature that turns a disaster into a catastrophe.
From Canyon Ferry to Fort Peck Dam, the Missouri River plunges more than 1,000 feet in elevation over a 300-mile stretch. This steep decline transforms the flood into a fast-moving torrent, exponentially increasing its power. The river, normally controlled by a series of hydroelectric projects, is now an unchecked, relentless force.
The Final Stand: Fort Peck Dam
Located nearly 300 miles northeast of Canyon Ferry, Fort Peck Dam is the largest dam on the Missouri River and one of the most massive earthen dams in the world. Completed in 1940, it stands 250 feet high and 21,026 feet long, forming the Fort Peck Reservoir, which stretches 134 miles and holds an astonishing 19 million acre-feet (825 billion cubic feet) of water. This dam plays a critical role in regulating the Missouri River’s flow and preventing catastrophic floods.
But as the floodstorm barrels toward Fort Peck, engineers at the dam realize the terrifying reality: the dam’s current outflow system cannot release water fast enough to compensate for the incoming surge. Fort Peck is already at near-capacity from spring runoff, and with the combined floodwaters from Canyon Ferry, Hauser, and Holter, the reservoir’s levels begin to rise at a staggering rate.
At 10:45 a.m., the reservoir has exceeded emergency spillway levels. The earthen dam, never designed to withstand such an overwhelming surge, starts showing signs of structural failure. Engineers scramble to increase controlled releases, but it’s futile.
By 11:12 a.m., a massive section of Fort Peck’s earthen embankment gives way. Within minutes, the entire eastern section collapses, sending a 150-foot-high wall of water racing downstream at over 30 mph.
The Cataclysm Unleashed
With Fort Peck’s 825 billion cubic feet of water now joining the flood, the torrent has become an unstoppable inland tsunami, moving relentlessly toward Garrison Dam in North Dakota. The elevation drop between Fort Peck and Garrison spans over 300 feet, adding even more momentum to the water’s deadly charge.
By 3:30 p.m., the Garrison Dam, one of the largest hydroelectric facilities in the U.S., collapses under the onslaught. This final breach sends a surge of over 2.5 trillion cubic feet of water cascading down the Missouri River, obliterating towns, cities, and infrastructure across Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and the Midwest.

While most people have been warned to evacuate, the destruction of property is unfathomable.
5.) The Slow March of Disaster: A Nation Watches in Horror
By daylight, the unstoppable wall of water has already consumed much of Montana and North Dakota, and now it creeps—agonizingly slow yet inescapable—toward the heart of the Midwest. The disaster does not strike all at once. Instead, it unfolds in slow motion, a grinding inevitability that emergency crews and news helicopters track in real time, broadcasting the destruction hour by hour to a stunned nation.
Bismarck Overwhelmed: The Water Rises, and Hope Fades
From the air, Bismarck looks like a city under siege by nature itself. The once-mighty Missouri River has swollen to five times its normal width, and levees that held through the night are now visibly bulging, crumbling, then failing altogether.
Helicopters hover over the stranded residents, capturing footage of entire neighborhoods gradually vanishing beneath the encroaching flood. The footage is surreal—people wading through waist-deep water, clutching their children and whatever belongings they can carry.
On the ground, emergency responders battle exhaustion as they ferry stranded families to safety in boats. Some neighborhoods are completely cut off, leaving rescue crews to make impossible choices about who to evacuate first.
- Bismarck’s flood stage is typically 16 feet, but by noon, the water has risen past 35 feet—and it keeps climbing.
- Highway 83, the last major evacuation route, is swallowed in slow motion.
- National Guard troops coordinate rooftop rescues while power stations spark and fail.
The collapse of Garrison Dam upstream means that Bismarck’s fate is sealed—the city will not be spared. Residents flee to higher ground, watching their homes become part of the ever-widening floodplain.
Oahe Dam Teeters on the Brink: The Clock Runs Out
Further downstream, Pierre, South Dakota, waits in agonizing silence. Residents have been watching the rising water for days, knowing the Oahe Dam stands between them and annihilation.
Live news feeds capture the moment the colossal structure gives way. At 9:40 a.m., an earthen section of the dam cracks, buckles, then collapses. The dam’s 102 billion cubic feet of water explode outward, sending a new tidal wave racing toward South Dakota’s capital.
From above, helicopters capture the moment the surge hits downtown Pierre. Streets become rivers, cars float like toys, and entire buildings dislodge and drift away. The bridge spanning the Missouri River collapses, cutting off all hope of escape for those still trapped on the wrong side.
- Pierre’s population of 14,000 has less than 30 minutes before the entire city is underwater.
- The flood, now carrying the force of three dam failures, picks up even more speed as it descends into South Dakota.
- Livestock in nearby fields struggle in the churning water, helpless as their pastures become part of the widening disaster.
Sioux City: The Evacuation Race Against Time
As the water thunders southward, Sioux City, Iowa, watches and waits, its people glued to live updates of Pierre’s destruction. They know they are next.
The city’s levees, reinforced only hours earlier, are now visibly weakening. Military convoys rush thousands toward higher ground, but the roads are choked with traffic, a slow-moving panic.
By mid-afternoon, the inevitable happens—the Missouri River breaks through. The flood arrives not as a single towering wave, but as a relentless surge, rising inch by inch until the entire city is drowning.
- Families abandon vehicles on flooded highways, scrambling for higher overpasses.
- Shelters overflow as tens of thousands are displaced.
- A power station explodes in a shower of sparks, plunging half the city into darkness.
Final Thoughts - A Pill for Humanity’s Future
The Canyon Ferry Disaster is more than a tragedy—it is a warning. A single point of failure unraveled the entire Missouri River Basin, leaving millions displaced and the heartland in ruins. The disaster underscores the fragility of our systems and the urgent need for innovation, resilience, and vigilance.
As communities embark on the long road to recovery, one truth is clear: we must redesign our world to prevent such catastrophic chain reactions from ever happening again. The lessons of this tragedy must shape the future, ensuring that our civilization does not crumble under the weight of its own complexity.
That’s Good, Keep Going!
I’m scared of AI, but I’m more scared of Boston Dynamics style AI robots, just like the movie Terminator. If you try to punch it, it is possible that it will reflexively dodge the punch and attack you while the angle and speed of your arm. Many situations can be modeled in this way and as a result, the future is a bit scary.