Self-replicating AI models could soon usurp your fridge, Anthropic warns
An army of agents are coming for your IoT devices.
Anthropic logo. Photo by Samyukta Lakshmi/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Follow us
- Anthropic warns small open AI models may eventually copy themselves across everyday smart devices.
- Researchers say a low-cost device model could reach this ability by the end of 2026.
- One tested model completed Anthropic’s full replication evaluation, but broad autonomous spread is not imminent.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
Anthropic claims that small open AI models may be months away from autonomously replicating across everyday internet-connected devices and potentially creating an independent AI botnet.
The debate over closed vs open AI models is heating up with the latest warning from Claude's developer.
Anthropic researchers evaluaAI ted open-weight AI models such as GLM-5.2, Qwen3.5-9B and Gemma4-26B-A4B to determine whether they could find other machines, such as Android TV boxes, smart ovens and refrigerators, infiltrate them, and propagate further without human intervention.
The researchers have already proven that 15 inexpensive Android TV boxes can run a relatively large AI model together, albeit slowly.
Small models can also configure unfamiliar hardware, according to Anthropic. However, GLM-5.2 was the only tested open-weight model to complete the researchers' end-to-end replication evaluation.
But don't read this as an imminent machine revolution just yet. At least not in the coming months.
“Digital slime mold”
The researchers estimate that if small models continue improving at the same rate, a model small enough to run on low-cost devices could reach the required replication capability by the end of 2026.
"It’s uncertain exactly what form autonomous AI replication will take. It could be a slow, distributed ‘digital slime mold,’ living on relatively insecure compute,” researchers behind tests said.
“It could also be a powerful cyber model that breaches datacenters at a high pace, or a model that scams people for compute credits," they noted.
Anthropic also said its researchers "expect a future awash with agents running on all types of hardware, including some that aren’t under human control."
In 2025, Cybernews reported on a massive botnet, Kimwolf, that included more than 1.8 million Android devices. It briefly surpassed Google on the top websites chart, sending warnings across the world about possible major cyberattacks.
"We should aim to harden our systems to make it difficult for such replicators to spread, but also prepare to deal with a world where they are here to stay," the researchers at Anthropic concluded.
