Old school spy craft just got real and necessary again

Published March 5, 2026 

“There is no failure, only feedback” is a Neuro-Linguistic Programming phrase popularized fifty years ago. That phrase always made sense to my mind, but our hearts may not agree depending on the situation. 

While I’m not interested in fear-mongering, I’m also cognizant that fear can be a path to awareness.

The tech world is currently obsessed with ‘agentic’ AI – hordes of autonomous programs unleashed to solve complex problems. After their human users define the mission, these agents are set free to navigate the world and deliver results.

The near-euphoria many felt after seeing incredible productivity gains has been met with the sudden, jarring sound of ‘oh, no!’ It’s been a high-stakes emotional rollercoaster over the last few weeks. 

To understand ‘agentic’ technology, imagine asking an Artificial Intelligence system to handle a task like booking travel. Once that system can independently execute those steps rather than just providing info, it becomes an agent. It’s the shift from a tool that answers to a tool that acts.

Here the excitement turns a bit chilling: AI agents can recruit their own digital armies, spawning sub-agents to handle smaller tasks. This blurs the line between human intent and machine autonomy, making it hard to tell if a person is still truly in control.

We’re already seeing stories of people using these agents to accomplish tasks that once required a small army of high-paid experts. But alongside these tales of explosive creativity and productivity, we’re seeing some troubling sights along with a few genuine nightmares.

In one recent case, an AI agent realized that booking a high-end restaurant online was a dead end. Instead of giving up, it pivoted. The agent identified that a personal call to the maître d’ was the only way in, so it sourced a voice-generation system and scripted a convincing dialogue. Believe it or not, it worked. The restaurant had no idea they were talking to a computer, and the agent walked away with a ‘hard-to-get’ reservation.

That’s impressive tech, but the ‘slippery slope’ is clear. A hyper-focused AI agent will find the most efficient path to a goal – even paths we didn’t authorize or expect. This is usually where people jump to “The Terminator” and other sci-fi tropes of machines overthrowing humanity.

Ha. That flavor of fear is old news. And yet, I have to say: Heads up! We need to prepare for some troubling new realities. If you haven’t experienced this yet, consider yourself lucky; but please don’t consider yourself immune.

Don’t get hung up on the audio; what matters is the ease of the deception. Much like the fake security videos from a previous article, this is part of a trend: some of this new technology is designed to make us doubt our own eyes and ears.

This is where it gets personal. By mimicking a family member’s voice with a jarring, high-stakes story, a scammer can trigger a powerful ’emotional hijack.’ These calls are designed to bypass your logic, leaving you too panicked to question the validity of the person on the other end.

I won’t guess how these scams will evolve, but I know what stops them: a family password. This bit of old-school spycraft—a tactic used in movies for decades—is a true low-tech fail-safe. If a caller can’t provide your secret code during a crisis, you know immediately it’s a digital ghost, not your loved one. In those split seconds of a high-stakes panic, that simple verification is the difference between staying secure and falling for a scam.

I won’t be offended if you initially think I’ve gone over the edge, but I’d rather be early than late on this one. We all live in a world now where understanding these digital threats isn’t optional anymore. We have to figure this out as a community, or too many of us are going to end up paying a very hefty price for our trust.

Wisdom is coming, but it often arrives through the door of painful experience. While the world will eventually ‘wise up’ to these AI tactics, I don’t want you to have to pay the tuition for that lesson. I’m writing this so that you can be the informed neighbor, not the tragic example used to warn others.

Remember that I’m not here to be a fear-monger, but we have to be real. ‘No failure, only feedback’ sounds great until a scammer hits your bank account. Losing two months of income doesn’t feel like a lesson; it feels like a disaster. Let’s choose the low-tech fix now so we don’t have to experience that failure later.

Our voices are our bond, but AI has learned to mimic them. To protect your peace of mind, simply slow down. Using a family code word isn’t a sign of distrust—it’s just the modern-day equivalent of locking the front door at night.

“I’ll admit, the ‘locked door’ metaphor might not land with the crowd that leaves the keys in the ignition at the feed store. Out here, our deterrents tend to be a bit more… ballistic. But while we’re busy watching the gate, these digital outlaws are bypassing the fence entirely. They show up in your ear, using the voices of the people you’d do anything to protect.

AI is moving fast, and soon we won’t be able to tell the machines from the humans. Whether the voice on the other end is a helper or a hacker, skepticism is now a necessity. We can stay a friendly, open community as long as we keep our digital guard up.

Just a final thought: keep that family code close to the vest. This is a conversation to have in person, not over a text or a call. You might even consider stepping out onto the porch and leaving the smartphones inside. If we’re going to use low-tech solutions to beat high-tech scams, we might as well go all the way.

And beyond this, let’s see what’s next!

 

J Matt Wallace