Don’t get bot hurt. Get bot even.

Bot Talk

Madagascar wasn’t on the syllabus

A professor hid a little something in his history midterm. Madagascar.

NBC reported this summer that a professor at Alcorn State University in Mississippi hid an instruction telling AI to insert the word where it didn’t belong.

White text. White background. Easy to miss when reading, but still there when copied into a chatbot.

He said 32 of his 35 students submitted responses containing the tell.

The bot did the assignment. Including its secret orders.

But that isn’t foolproof evidence of cheating. As the University of Oregon warns, screen readers and custom display settings can reveal hidden text.

But it illustrates prompt injection — instructions planted in material an AI reads that can steer it away from your request.

And teachers aren’t the only ones planting them.

Human x Bot

Your bot. Someone else’s instructions.

You don’t need a history midterm to encounter this trick. An email, webpage or document can carry instructions meant for the AI reading it on your behalf.

Microsoft warns that attackers can hide commands that try to make an assistant label a malicious email safe, distort a summary or send sensitive information elsewhere.

You asked the bot to read the message. The sender would like to run the meeting.

Not every attempt works. The risk depends on the assistant’s safeguards and what it can access or do.

But an AI summary isn’t a security clearance. If it recommends clicking a link, paying an invoice or sharing information, verify the request through a known contact or website — not the details in the message.

And if you connect AI to your accounts, limit its permissions and require your approval before it sends, buys or shares.

The professor wanted Madagascar in an essay.

A scammer would prefer your money somewhere else.

Final Bot Thought

Letting the bot read for you shouldn't mean letting everything it reads give it orders.

Meanwhile, outside ...

The rocket got sunrise first.

Tuesday morning, the sky over Florida’s Space Coast looked like something an AI image generator might dream up.

This one was real. I took the photo.

According to NASA, SpaceX launched a Dragon spacecraft at 6:33 a.m., carrying more than 6,300 pounds of science and cargo to the International Space Station.

The glowing plume is often called a “space jellyfish.” NASA explains that rocket exhaust high above Earth can catch sunlight while those of us below are still in darkness.