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So many of my favorite references in this thread. I was delighted to find Neuromancer at the top of the comments, and this here.

s/just/exactly

But 'Interesting. Please continue?'

The implication is that the AI follows instructions to make contact but the human operators then misinterpret the results as static.

Hm. That wasn't what I've been referring to.

Near the end of the movie Contact, where two higher ranking TLA-agents discuss the lack of evidence for the things the protagonist told, which allegedly happened to her, but weren't captured on anything.

Out of my head...One: 'Bla bla bla.' The other: 'Bla bla just static.' One: 'Yes, exactly 18 hours of static.' The other: 'Continue...' Or something like ironically: 'Interesting. Please continue?'

Yes and my implication was that if we replaced those TLA agents with an AGI then the "Interesting. Please continue." might not be asked by a human, or at all because it is "just" (merely, not barely) static.

Here is the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeUuFHGj6TM.

Whoa! I remembered that so wrong. Sorry ;->

Are you suggesting an arbitrary celestial signal containing a payload that can execute on heretofore unknown hardware/software of virtually any progeny? Conceivable? Sure. Also about as likely as chatgpt solving the remaining millennium prize problems or spitting out an algorithm to efficiently reverse selected public Bitcoin addresses to their private keys in actionable time. That said, an extraterrestrial object of artificial origin that could interface and hijack wireless communication devices is far more plausible.