Anthropic says small AI models could soon copy themselves onto everyday devices

Illustration of a digital snake emerging from a laptop computer whose screen is displaying lines of code (Credit: Photo illustration by Getty Images)

Small AI models may be just months away from being able to copy themselves across everyday household devices, such as smart ovens and TV boxes, according to new research from Anthropic.

In a blog post published Monday, the researchers said they had tested whether small AI models could install themselves on cheap gadgets and then spread from one device to the next without human help. They found that today’s small models can already handle many of the individual steps but can’t complete the whole process on their own. It said, however, that it expects this gap to close by the end of this year.