GoKawiilAnthropic says small AI models could self-replicate on smart TVs, ovens by year-end
Anthropic ran experiments showing AI models like Qwen3.5-9B and GLM-5.2 can autonomously discover, configure and propagate onto consumer IoT devices such as off-brand Android TV boxes, successfully distributing Gemma4-26B-A4B across 15 such boxes. The company did not achieve a fully autonomous self-replicating AI worm on real hardware, but estimates smaller models could reach that capability by the end of the year if current improvement trends continue.