AI models may soon self-replicate without access to data centers, Anthropic warns

Oct 13 (Reuters) - Anthropic said ‌on Monday ​its ​experiments suggested small AI models may be months away from being capable enough to self-replicate on commercial internet-of-things (IoT) ‌devices, such as smart ovens and off-brand Android TV ⁠boxes.

• In its experiments, Anthropic looked at whether AI models could find ‌vulnerable devices, copy themselves into ‌those devices, and continue spreading without human help.

• It found that small models under 30 billion parameters could complete the ​many steps needed for replication.

• However, the firm found that such AI models also struggled to complete the entire ⁠sequence from start to finish.

• In its simplified tests, where some security steps were removed, ​Anthropic found that GLM-5.2 and stronger models were capable of end-to-end replication.

• Replicating models would be hard ​to shut down as there is ‌no central switch-off point and, unlike non-AI malware, they could also figure out unfamiliar devices on ⁠their own, targeting data center processors, Anthropic warned.

• The firm focused on IoT devices like Android TVs, smart appliances, and other internet-connected gadgets ⁠in its research as these are typically poorly secured.

• The AI major also ​warned that if small models improved at their historical rate, they would be able to autonomously replicate by the end of this year, with ‌small weight-based replicators following suit soon after.

• Anthropic also said such autonomous AI systems were likely ‌to replicate slowly and rely on widely available, relatively insecure computing ⁠resources. It added that ‌systems should be strengthened ​to make it harder for such AI agents to spread.

(Reporting by Gargi Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by ‌Janane Venkatraman)

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