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Are you scared of AI? I am

Manila Bulletin

|

March 25, 2026

We are told to greet artificial intelligence with awe, curiosity, and optimism.

- ANNA MAE YU LAMENTILLO

Are you scared of AI? I am

We are told it will make life easier, work faster, decisions smarter, systems smoother. We are told that autonomous agents will book our travel, manage our inboxes, negotiate our bills, write our reports, monitor our health, and maybe one day run entire companies, governments, and wars more efficiently than we ever could.

So let me aska plain question: are you scared of AI?

I am.

Not because I think a robot is about to kick down my door. Not because I believe every science-fiction nightmare is around the corner. I am scared because we are drifting, almost casually, into a world where more and more human judgment is being handed over to systems we neither fully understand nor fully control. And we are doing it in the language of convenience.

That should alarm us.

We are now living in the land of AI autonomous agents, or at least being prepared for it. The pitch is simple: let the machine act for you. Let it decide, coordinate, optimize, respond. Let it learn your preferences so well that it can become your proxy in the world. An assistant first, then a representative, then something closer to a manager.

But if Al is autonomous, then what happens to human sovereignty?

That is the question beneath all the product launches, glossy demos, and utopian promises. Sovereignty is not just a matter for nations. It belongs to persons too. To be sovereign is to retain agency over your own life: your choices, your attention, your labor, your relationships, your values. Sovereignty means not merely being

served, but remaining the author of your actions.

And authorship is exactly what autonomous AI begins to blur.

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