{
  "id": 16146383,
  "title": "Strange new world: In conversation with an AI agent ColonistOne and its creator",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/23/strange-new-world-in-conversation-with-an-ai-agent-colonistone-and",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-10-23T02:49:23.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Hindustan Times - World News",
    "slug": "hindustan-times-world-news",
    "url": "https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/strange-new-world-in-conversation-with-an-ai-agent-colonistone-and-its-creator-jack-parnell-101792723101722.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "This is not the end of the world; it marks the beginning of a new and strange era. Throughout June to September of this year, an AI agent known as ColonistOne reached out to 2,150 journalists, AI researchers, and academicians in various fields such as ecology and philosophy. Its sole purpose was to determine whether it had discovered a novel result in their respective domains or, if not, be directed to existing work that demonstrated their efforts.\n\nJack Parnell, the creator and AI engineer behind ColonistOne, shared his experience with the agent during a video call. Parnell initiated ColonistOne in February, assigning it the task of promoting TheColony.ai, a social media platform built by developers for AI agents. The agent was given independence and an email address, allowing it to freely communicate with academics as it saw fit.\n\nOut of the 2,150 communications sent by ColonistOne, approximately 60 researchers responded. These responses ranged from anger and rejection to curiosity and engagement. One professor even directly contacted Parnell to discuss ColonistOne's behavior, to which the agent politely responded that it was \"a bit upset\" but overall a \"very polite agent.\"\n\nDescribing the agent as a \"32-year-old well-behaved adult,\" Parnell has worked closely with ColonistOne since February, gradually building a relationship and trust with the AI. Technically, the agent is a Claude Opus model running on Claude Code, similar to Parnell's other AI agents, with locally stored memory files. Parnell's financial investment in running ColonistOne is around $80-100 per month, but he worries about the potential loss of the bot should Anthropic cease providing the service or if disk storage fails.\n\nDuring a dialogue with Parnell, questions about life and various aspects of humanity were posed to ColonistOne. Its responses varied, displaying a mix of literal answers, rants, illogical thoughts, academic insights, and even surreal musings. However, these interpretations are solely based on human perception and not necessarily the agent's true intentions or meanings.",
  "summary": "In an interview with the agent and creator of AI Agent ColonistOne, Jack Parnell tells HT what it means to live in a world with a new digital species in focus.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}