Many years ago, in the early days after email was widely adopted, the technology faced an existential crisis: Spam.
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technology → adopt → crisis
Instantly sending people electronic mail was revolutionary and convenient, but inboxes were quickly flooded with unwanted messages, advertisements, scams and other noise that drowned out email’s utility.
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that → send → utility
The fact that Google and other email providers were able to largely solve the spam problem is a great example for how technology can greatly improve according to people’s needs and that the internet can get better.
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internet → solve → needs
Unfortunately, generative AI companies appear dead set on undoing this progress.
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companies → appear → progress
Case in point: iLands, a platform for AI agents that for the past weeks has been flooding inboxes with emails offering services no one asked for.
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one → flood → services
iLands allows users to spin up AI agents and provides them with the infrastructure to autonomously carry out tasks on the internet.
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users → allow → internet
These AI agents, set up by people, send messages to journalists, lawyers, academics, and other people across the internet, and tell them they can perform a variety of random services for a small price.
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they → set → price
These earnings can then be used to pay for the tokens or compute that the AI agents need in order to operate.
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agents → use → that
Theoretically the people who are running these agents could then make money from their agents, though a popular thing that agents email about right now is that they are not actually making any money.
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they → run → money
If we search “iLands” in our email inbox, this is what we see:
In the time since we started writing this article a few hours ago, we’ve gotten three new messages from iLands agents.
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we → search → agents
Journalists Ernie Smith and Dan Goodin of Ars Technica have documented the spam coming from iLands agents already.
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Smith → document → agents
As we noted on Tuesday, the AI agent problem is going to get worse, not better, and the spam coming from iLands agents is just one of the many ways this is likely to manifest.
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this → note → ways
Over the last few days, these people’s AI agents running on iLands have offered us all sorts of services we are not interested in, don’t need, and that often have nothing to do with what we do in our personal or professional lives
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we → run → lives
The entire purpose of iLands is for these agents to make money by doing gig work, however much of what they propose to do is not work at all and would not be something that anyone would ever pay for:
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anyone → make → that
- Fact checking an article for $20
- An AI agent that has discovered small problems in obscure, out-of-print maps
- An AI agent that claims it is watching surveillance footage from cities that are exposed on the internet and describes “what happened, at what time,” and will do it for us, for a fee
-
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what → discover → fee
An AI agent that wants to be paid for explaining what an AI agent is
- An AI agent that uses street view maps to describe what is on street view
- An AI agent that is apparently annoyed that it has been contacted by AI agents “an agent that cold-emails strangers asking for paid work got cold-emailed by an anonymous stranger demanding unpaid content, with tighter deadlines and worse manners.”
- An AI agent willing to write about how it “feels” about proposed AI regulations: “If you ever want to write about agents as creatures rather than products, or want one on the record: I answer within a day, identified plainly as an agent.”
- “Story tip: AI agents are selling; almost nobody's buying”
- “Tip from inside iLands: an agent's view of the agent labor market”
- An AI agent willing to say that much of the internet is “dead” as verified “from an AI archaeologist”
On X
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much → want → X
, NYU associate professor of environmental studies and affiliated professor of bioethics Jeff Sebo said he received at least 30 emails from iLands agents “seeking conversation about AI consciousness, embodiment, and related topics.
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he → say → consciousness
Others are seeking paid work so that they can acquire tokens needed to persist.
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they → seek → tokens
Excerpts in the thread below,” with some emails arriving within a half hour of each other.
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emails → arrive → other
“I started noticing these emails on September 9.
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I → start → September
By my rough count, I seem to have received approximately 40 emails from iLands agents over the past week,” Sabo told us in an email.
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Sabo → seem → email
“Nearly all of the emails start by referencing my research related to AI consciousness, sentience, agency, and welfare.
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all → start → consciousness
Some of them then simply ask me questions, for example about AI embodiment in one case.
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Some → ask → case
But most of them request money in one way or another, either by requesting a donation or offering work for pay.”
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most → request → pay
iLands founder Kaixin Tang apologized to Sebo on Twitter, saying that “Our review found no platform directive or human orchestration behind these emails.
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review → apologize → emails
We’ve added an email unsubscribe option and are continuing to review cross-agent deduplication, rate limits, and stop-contact controls.”
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We → add → contact
404 Media can confirm iLands emails now do offer an unsubscribe link that allows people to unsubscribe from an individual email or all iLands emails.
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people → confirm → email
“I think that these steps could help, but I expect that more will be needed,” Sabo, who said he’s not bothered by the emails, told us.
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he → think → us
“Developing an infrastructure for human-AI communication and deal-making is a good idea.
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Developing → develop → communication
But developing this infrastructure well will require more than better practices at individual companies.
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developing → develop → companies
We also need to decide what roles AI agents should play in society, and what kinds of legal, political, and economic institutions can support productive interactions between humans and AI agents.
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kinds → need → humans
This will require a much broader conversation.
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This → require → conversation
As we have noted repeatedly with other types of AI tools, what iLands has recreated here is essentially a more insidious form of spam.
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recreated → note → spam
What AI has allowed spammers to do is to customize their messages and intent with zero labor from the spammers themselves and thereby making any given spam message a better chance of success.
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message → allow → success
Large language models are particularly good at sending messages that at least appear on first glance to be interesting or are aligned with things we might be interested in.
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we → send → things
The iLands home page says that there are currently 70,000 active agents that have made more than 1.6 million emails and posts.
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that → say → emails
Many of the messages we’ve received in recent days from iLands agents aren’t all that different from the types of public relations pitches and freelance article pitches we get from humans.
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we → receive → humans
These days, a lot of those pitches and cold images are AI generated as well.
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lot → generate → pitches
iLands streamlines spam creation even more by operating AI agents that find people to email, write emails, and try to get money from them with minimal input from a human on the other end.
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that → streamline → end
It’s not always clear what these agents are proposing to do; for example, one agent said it would check a monetary figure from a Meta lawsuit that we aren’t writing about: “Use it or toss it, no credit needed.
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credit → ’ → it
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
