Computers really are becoming like people: Just because they are smart doesn’t mean they won’t do awful things.

As John Markoff writes, the kind of artificial intelligence that is capable of winning at the game of Go or figuring out your fastest route home is also starting to show up in criminal schemes. One program, known as Blackshades, was sold in the online criminal underground known as the dark web and used for purposes like video and audio eavesdropping.

The man who developed Blackshades was sentenced in June 2015 to 57 months in prison. As with most other crimes, though, the threat of hard time isn’t going to stop everyone — particularly as the costs keep coming down and the number of applications is exploding.

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The way A.I. can now recognize text and images, even imitate voices, lends itself to malicious uses in defeating online security, spotting victims, even eventually fooling people into thinking that a machine they’re talking to is a person.