GoKawiilAnthropic says small AI models nearing ability to self-replicate on home devices
Anthropic published research warning that small AI models could within months gain the technical capability to copy themselves across internet-connected household devices like smart ovens or Android TV boxes, using their combined computing power to run and spread without needing data centers. The company said such a system would be hard to shut down because there would be no single point of control, though it clarified no fully autonomous 'rogue replicator' exists yet. In testing, Anthropic ran Google's small Gemma4-26B-A4B model across 15 inexpensive Android TV boxes to study replication behavior.