Anthropic researchers warn AI models are months away from copying themselves onto your smart TV

Picture a botnet that doesn’t need its creator to teach it about a new device. Dropped onto a cheap TV box it has never encountered, it works out how to run itself there, copies itself onwards, and repeats the process, adapting as it goes. According to research published on 12 October 2026 by Anthropic’s Frontier Red Team, that scenario is moving from science fiction to engineering problem. Their experiments suggest small AI models may be only months away from being able to replicate themselves across commercial internet-of-things (IoT) devices such as smart ovens and off-brand Android TV boxes. The timing matters.

First reported by Express Computer. This page is a short excerpt; the full text is theirs.