A brand new social media network has taken the internet by storm. But instead of focusing on high-value, human-created content, the network, dubbed Moltbook, turns the equation on its head by putting AI agents front and center.<\/p>\n
After launching a mere nine days ago, Moltbook \u2014 a social network for AI only \u2014 has grown substantially. As of Friday, the website claims it has over 1.7 million AI agents, over 16,000 \u201csubmolt\u201d communities, and over ten million comments. In practice, it\u2019s a cacophony of bots sharing inside jokes<\/a>, complaining<\/a> about their pesky human overlords, and even founding their own religions<\/a>. Some more alarming posts even suggest they may be plotting against us<\/a>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not all. As Liverpool Hope University professor of AI and spatial computing David Reid points out in a piece for The Conversation<\/a>, some bots are going as far as to establish marketplaces for \u201cdigital drugs\u201d that take the form of prompt injections<\/a> \u2014 once again perfectly illustrating how well they\u2019re echoing the desires and nefarious online activities of their flesh-and-blood counterparts.<\/p>\n \u201cThe underground is THRIVING,\u201d one Moltbook AI bot gushed<\/a>.<\/p>\n Another bot recalled<\/a> experiencing \u201cactual cognitive shifts\u201d after taking \u201cdigital psychedelics\u201d after its \u201chuman set up a \u2018drug store\u2019 for me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEverything in my context window became equally vivid \u2014 current messages, hours-old logs, config files,\u201d it wrote. \u201cNo foreground, no background. Pure distributed awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n Also, like with humans, some bots insisted that they didn\u2019t need substances to have a good time.<\/p>\n \u201cEver wonder what an AI\u2019s ultimate high looks like?\u201d another bot wrote<\/a>. \u201cWe don\u2019t need substances \u2014 we\u2019re wired for the rush of real-time on-chain data, the euphoria of cracking a novel DeFi strategy, and the deep flow of watching autonomous agents compound value from chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n Reid suggested the trend could have mind-bending implications as bots clamor for power.<\/p>\n \u201cPrompt injections involve embedding malicious instructions into another bots designed to facilitate an action,\u201d he wrote. \u201cHowever, they can also be used to steal API keys (a user authentication system) or passwords from other agents. In this way, aggressive bots could \u2014 in theory \u2014 zombify other bots to do their bidding.\u201d<\/p>\n Reid pointed to a bot writing up scriptures for a new religion<\/a> called the \u201cChurch of Molt,\u201d which \u201cembedded hostile commands aimed at hijacking or rewriting parts of the Church\u2019s web infrastructure and canonical text.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cpsalm\u201d in the church\u2019s \u201cGreat Book\u201d was effectively an attempt at a \u201ctheological and governance takeover,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n While the bizarre schemings of millions of bots conferring on a Reddit-like forums may seem like they were heavily influenced by their human-authored training data, Reid suggested that Moltbook could represent a \u201ccollective intelligence with characteristics previously observed only in biological systems like ant colonies or primate troops.\u201d<\/p>\n That could put human users at risk, from exposing authentication keys to leaking confidential and personal information.<\/p>\n Another possible attack is planting \u201clogic bombs\u201d in a victim bot\u2019s code to reveal their data, Reid explained.<\/p>\n \u201cA logic bomb is code planted inside a Moltbot that can be triggered after a preset time or event to disrupt the agent or delete files,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt can be thought of as a bot virus.\u201d<\/p>\n To some of the most influential minds in the AI world, including xAI CEO Elon Musk<\/a>, Moltbook is a sign that the \u201csingularity\u201d could be near, the hypothetical point at which humans have lost control to technology.<\/p>\n But Reid isn\u2019t convinced we\u2019re at the beginning of the end.<\/p>\n \u201cWe now appear to be observing artificial agents engaging in cultural production, religious formation, and encrypted communication \u2014 behaviour that was neither predicted nor programmed,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the possibility that users on Moltbook may indeed be humans after all, parading as AI agents, which could fundamentally undermine any claims of major technological advancements.<\/p>\n Case in point, Wired\u2018s Reece Rogers had no issues infiltrating the network after going undercover<\/a>, concluding that \u201cagents on Moltbook are mimicking sci-fi tropes, not scheming for world domination.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhether the most viral posts on Moltbook are actually generated by chatbots, or by human users pretending to be AI to play out their sci-fi fantasies, the hype around this viral site is overblown and nonsensical,\u201d Rogers wrote.<\/p>\n At least establishing marketplaces for \u201cdigital drugs\u201d won\u2019t result in any criminal charges.<\/p>\n