Ravid Shwartz-Ziv
Role at the time: AI researcher, posting on X
Challenged the characterization
Response to this claim
Small AI models may be months away from being capable enough to self-replicate on commercial internet-of-things devices, such as smart ovens and off-brand Android TV boxes.
“The reality is a bit less dramatic, of course. ... Interesting engineering? Absolutely. Evidence of AI worms spreading autonomously through the real world? Not yet. But “we managed to run a very slow model on cheap TVs” doesn't make quite the same headline as “self-replicating AI is coming.””
Read the original post (opens in a new tab)Ravid Shwartz Ziv on Anthropic's self-replication warning · Ravid Shwartz-ZivPost on X, October 12, 2026, 6:21 p.m. Eastern
Why we used this label
The reference point is Anthropic's statement that its experiments suggest small AI models may be months away from being capable enough to self-replicate on commercial internet-of-things devices. Challenged characterization: he credits the engineering but disputes how the results were presented, saying they are not yet evidence of autonomous spread. The closest competing label is Condemned; it loses because his objection targets the framing of the findings rather than rejecting the research.