Anthropic-Small AI Models Could Self-Replicate via IoT Devices; SpaceX Limits Starlink in Ukraine Hampering Military; OpenAI Secret Recorder in Office-AI Helps Finger Perpetrator; Netflix Laying Off 1,000 Employees 

Anthropic has issued a warning that small AI models may be able to replicate themselves soon and burrow into all sorts of Internet of Things devices like smart TVs and smart refrigerators. Arstechnica.com reports that this would be like computer worms, which propagate without human interaction and can infect IoT devices…only on steroids— with the AI being behind the small models. Anthropic also warned that this new type of malware could be difficult to stop. Bill Gates also sounded the alarm about this in the last several days. Smaller AI models require much less powerful hardware to run than do frontier models. I love tech, as is obvious, but for once am glad to have a ‘dumb’ refrigerator!

SpaceX has placed a limit on some Starlink devices in Ukraine, disrupting combat drone missions that need the tech. According to reuters.com, SpaceX never even gave the Ukrainian military a heads up…and some missions had to be cancelled. Apparently, during flights the connection could drop for 10-20 seconds to as low as 66 mph. The drones kept flying, but it made them much harder to control. One has to wonder if this was because of the damage they have been able to cause to Russian data centers, which seems to have enraged Elon Musk. SpaceX has not responded to requests for comment on why the service was throttled. Ukraine drones don’t use Starlink in Russia, where the service is not available…but instead use other means of communication. 

A spy had connected a recorder on the back of a TV in a conference room at one of OpenAI’s San Francisco offices. After the device was found, mashable.com says the AI giant used its own models to “understand the device and where it had come from.” The models helped finger a Saudi national who had worked there as an engineer. He was arrested by the FBI on October 9th. The recorder was plugged into a USB port on the back of the TV and was wrapped in toilet paper. Apparently he had planted a 2nd device in the building and that was found as well. The device was only in the room a handful of days. OpenAI says it currently has no indication that the man…one Abdulrahman Alfozan… successfully obtained model weights, source code, or customer data. The room where the device was planted, however, was a place where “highly confidential” technical, commercial, and strategic information was frequently discussed.

Netflix is laying off about 6% of its workforce. TechCrunch.com reports that Netflix claims most of the cuts would affect its product, tech, legal, and human resources departments. The company said it will “continue to invest aggressively in high-impact areas” to improve its service, and stated it is on track to deliver its full-year forecast. The streamer has had 16,000 full-time employees. This layoff comes in the aftermath of the battle between Netflix and Paramount Skydance over acquiring Warner Brothers. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.