‘No one has done this in the wild’: study observes AI replicate itself

Cybersecurity experts said the research was interesting, though not alarming at this stage. Photograph: Klaus Ohlenschlaeger/Alamy

It’s the stuff of science fiction cinema, or particularly breathless AI company blogposts: new research finds recent AI systems can independently copy themselves on to other computers.

In the doom scenario, this means that when the superintelligent AI goes rogue, it will escape shutdown by seeding itself across the world wide web, lurking outside the reach of frantic IT professionals and continuing to plot world domination or paving over the world with solar panels.