I'm reminded of the universal computer viruses of Steve Barnes' SF stories, which ended up infecting people too.
In the 2004 Battlestar Galactica series, the explanation for why the Galactica was the only ship that survived a massive Cylon attack seems more and more likely. The ship was old and wasn't fully connected to the human's command and control systems and so the Cylon virus couldn't reach it.
In a very real way there ARE malicious AI agents working tirelessly to create and spread memes via language and sound to alter our brain software.