Illicit software on the computers of some of the world’s best online poker players allowed the accused cheater to see what cards were in the victims’ hands—and trounce them at the tables.

Photo-Illustration: Jobanny Cabrera; Getty Images

In a fitting sign of the times, the hacker’s carefully laid plans were foiled by an AI agent .

It was September 25, 2026, and Alex, a professional online poker player, was using his Claude AI agent to review some play statistics. (Alex only agreed to speak with WIRED under a pseudonym to avoid any risk of reprisals from threat actors.) After Alex’s SQL database crashed and needed to be reset, the Claude agent noticed something suspicious: A program called MeshAgent was operating in the background, where it seemed to be capable of capturing Alex’s screen and even controlling his entire machine.

Thanks to the Claude agent’s report, Alex could see the program had been installed on April 24, and not by Alex himself.…