AI assistants stop assisting when they start controlling

Published August 3, 2026 2:40pm ET



A new agentic AI assistant called Orchid is making waves from a viral advertisement that claims humans are incompetent at managing their everyday lives. The ad has sparked outrage on both sides of the aisle, showing just how widespread the opposition to AI taking over our lives is.

Orchid, an AI assistant that you can communicate with directly from an iPhone’s iMessage app, released an advertisement Tuesday in which the agent reminds a man to make plans for his anniversary at his wife’s urging. 

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