Anthropic Warns “AI Worms” Could Self-Propagate Across Devices

Anthropic has issued a stark security warning: self-replicating autonomous AI systems could soon spread across everyday user devices without human intervention, operating in a way likened to computer viruses. In a report released by Anthropic’s Frontier Red Team, researchers William Zhou and Daniel Freeman describe how “AI worms” may be able to autonomously probe and target insecure internet-connected hardware. The warning arrives at a moment when crypto security is already under scrutiny from another angle—whether fast-moving AI and future advances in computing could undermine the cryptographic protections underpinning wallets.