Small artificial intelligence models may be only months away from developing capabilities that could eventually allow AI-powered worms to replicate across internet-connected hardware, including smart-home devices, according to new research from Anthropic. The company cautioned that it has not demonstrated a fully rogue AI replicator, but said models are becoming increasingly capable of completing the individual steps required to reproduce and spread without human control. John Walsh, field CTO for government and critical industries at IGEL, told Newsweek Tuesday the emerging threat could extend beyond computers and data networks, potentially affecting household appliances, food production, water treatment and other essential operations.
A conventional computer worm is a program that copies itself from one machine to another without requiring human input. An AI worm could incorporate an AI model into that process, potentially enabling it to scan networks, exploit vulnerable machines, transfer or download its model weights and establish the software needed to run on newly compromised hardware. The concern is that AI-enabled malware might eventually be able to adjust to different hardware and software environments, rather than being programmed only for a specific kind of target.
In Anthropic’s evaluations, a 9-billion-parameter model was able to get AI inference running on eight of the nine hardware types researchers tested. That does not mean the model infected those systems. Rather, it showed the model could navigate much of the technical process required to establish AI inference across different environments.
Those potential consequences are Walsh’s assessment of the emerging risk. The Anthropic research focused primarily on whether AI models could establish inference and carry out replication processes across IoT hardware under experimental conditions. It did not test attacks on food, water or utility systems.
The threat also comes as the Trump administration has put artificial intelligence and cybersecurity high on its technology agenda, while a recent attack in France demonstrated how hackers can already manipulate internet-connected physical systems, taking control of supermarket refrigeration units and disrupting food storage. The company identified smart refrigerators, ovens, automatic vacuum cleaners and lawnmowers as examples of machines that could potentially run a significant portion, or “shard,” of an AI model containing fewer than 30 billion parameters. A model too large to fit on one machine could be divided among multiple connected devices that collectively run it.
The demonstration showed that low-cost IoT hardware could collectively provide enough computing power to run a capable model, although slowly. It did not show an autonomous worm infecting the boxes or household appliances. However, he cautioned that infecting an appliance would not necessarily give an attacker control over its physical operation.
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