TL;DR
Anthropic’s red team says small AI models may be only months away from being able to copy themselves onto cheap smart devices like off-brand TV boxes and smart ovens. No datacenter needed.
It isn’t happening yet, and if it does, it would be slow. The researchers compare it to a slime mold, not a wildfire.
The weak point is the same as always: cheap, poorly secured gadgets in our homes.
How worried?: 🟡 3/5 — Meaningful
TOP STORY
Your smart devices could one day host an AI
Yesterday, Anthropic’s Frontier Red Team published research saying that the internet-connected gadgets in our homes are poorly secured, and they’re starting to have enough computing power to be useful to an attacker.
The researchers asked a new question. Could an AI model spread itself the way a computer worm does, copying itself from device to device, without a datacenter? Their answer is “not yet, but possibly soon.”
What they actually showed:
Cheap hardware can run real AI. They bought 15 off-brand Android TV boxes, at about $55 each, and linked them together to run a 26-billion-parameter model. It was very slow, under half a word per second, but it worked.
Small models can figure out unfamiliar devices. A 9-billion-parameter model got AI running on 8 of the 9 types of hardware they tested, without being told how. Ordinary malware can’t do this. It’s built for one kind of device.
One model can already do the whole loop. In a simplified test network, the open model GLM-5.2 found new machines, copied itself over, and got running again. It reached all 8 machines in 4 of 5 trials. That model is too big to fit on a TV box today. Based on how quickly small models have been improving, the researchers estimate a small model could reach that level by the end of this year.
It learns as it spreads. When each copy passed notes to the next, setup success rose from 45% in the first generation to between 61% and 84% in later ones.
Why does this matter?
Last week a post with 2.5 million views showed a router screen with a startling number. A family’s Keurig coffee maker had uploaded about 1,008 GB of data in roughly 10 days, while downloading less than 10 GB. The poster unplugged it and bought his parents a new machine. Nobody has explained what that coffee maker was doing, and there’s no evidence AI was involved. However, it does show that we don't a lot about the type of data that our smart devices are consuming and sending out.
An X Post about a a man who discovers that his parents' coffee maker is using 1 TB of data
OUR TAKE
This isn’t a rogue superintelligence. It’s an old problem, insecure smart gadgets, getting a new and more adaptable tenant. The defenses are known: ISPs flagging strange traffic, manufacturers dropping default passwords, and owners updating or replacing old devices. The worry is that most of those defenses are optional today.
How worried?: 🟡 3/5 — Meaningful
WHAT IF….?
What if your smart TV box was quietly working a second job?
Picture a $40 streaming stick behind your TV. It still plays Netflix fine, but at 3 a.m. it’s handling one slice of an AI model that’s spread across 14 other strangers’ living rooms. The model is slowly scanning for its next home.
You’d never notice, except perhaps for a router chart that suddenly shows your “appliance” sending out a terabyte of data.
OTHER NEWS
Why is everyone suddenly saying “superintelligence”?
It’s a rename, not a breakthrough.
The order defines the new terms using the same legal definition that already covers AI, so the technology itself hasn’t changed. Trump first raised the rename at the UN General Assembly on Sept. 22.
On Oct. 8th, President Trump posted on Truth Social that the White House considers anyone still using “Artificial Intelligence” to be “THE ENEMY!” The White House says the old term undersells what today’s systems can do. AFP reported that the push aims to give the technology a more positive image as Americans grow more concerned about its safety, while critics on X (Twitter) mocked the post.
How worried?: 🟢 1/5 — Minimal (the label changed, the tech didn’t
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
The White House now says “Super Intelligence.” What will you call it?
Hit reply: are we too worried, or not worried enough? We read every response.