Quote of the Day

Our experiments suggest that small AI models may be months away from being capable enough to self-replicate on commercial internet-of-things (IoT) devices, like smart ovens and off-brand Android TV boxes. A replicator like this would be challenging to shut down, since there’s no centralized point to shut off—though it may be slow (with a doubling time of days). Unlike non-AI malware, it could also figure out unfamiliar devices on its own. In our evaluations, a 9B model got inference running on 8 of the 9 hardware types we tested.

William Zhou, Daniel Freeman
October 12, 2026
AI models may be capable of self-replicating without access to a datacenter \ Anthropic

“A doubling time of days,” with it being challenging to shut down. Yeah. That is really slow. </sarcasm>

Suppose it has spread to 1,000 devices before it is noticed, and it takes 10 days to double. Unchecked, in another 100 days it will have over 1,000,000 devices.

Expect faster replicating, better attack capabilities, and more stealth to evolve as you try to eliminate yesterday’s infections.

I can’t find it now but a few months ago I suggested AI’s could someday be hiding in small computers. Commentors scoffed.