🚨Anthropic Frontier Red Team warns: “We’re seeing signs of life for AI worms” >paper: "AI models may be capable of self-replicating without access to a datacenter" >researchers buy 15 sketchy $55 android TV boxes >link them over unauthenticated ADB ports >the TV boxes have 4gb of RAM each and run unpatched Android Open Source Project forks >shard gemma4-26b across the ram sticks using pipeline parallelism >gemma figures out how to run inference across all 15 TVs @ 0.39 tokens/sec >qwen 3.5 9b figures out how to compile inference on 8 of 9 novel hardware types on its own >glm 5.2 achieves end-to-end autonomous worm replication >infects edge devices, compiles its own inference stack, and replicates autonomously >when an instance dies, it writes debugging notes into Memento for the next generation >daughter copies setup success jumps from 45% -> 84% across generations >pure Lamarckian evolution inside consumer electronics >smart oven, robot vacuum, and cheap TVs form a decentralized botnet >two million infected TV boxes worldwide = 40 H100 equivalents of unkillable compute >it replicates once every few days like a distributed “digital slime mold” >you can't pull the plug because half the model weights are already sharded across the neighborhood >sub-30B models projected to hit full autonomous replication threshold by late 2026 “We should aim to harden our systems… but also prepare to deal with a world where they are here to stay.”

We discovered a sophisticated recording device that was hidden inside one of our offices. We used our models to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier. We referred the matter to the FBI, and we’re grateful to the agents and prosecutors who moved quickly to make an arrest. The FBI’s investigation is ongoing and we will continue to support their work. At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data. The employee was terminated. We take protecting our technology, data, and people seriously, and as a matter of national importance. Our security program is designed to protect against a wide range of threat actors, from insider risks to cybercriminals to nation states, and this case is an example of how AI can help address these sophisticated security threats.