Anthropic warns of AI 'worms' spreading across smart gadgets

Small artificial intelligence models may be only months away from being able to behave like a computer worm, copying themselves from one internet-connected gadget to the next without human help, AI giant Anthropic said.

An AI worm of this kind would likely be slow, taking days to copy itself, William Zhou and Daniel Freeman of Anthropic said, comparing it to a slime mold or a swarm of fruit flies.