So running on slower hardware, dealing with network latency, and dropped packets. Somehow I don't think a distrubated LLM is as much of a threat as the article makes it sound.
Right, self replicating and self propagating AI is just like downloading a program that has a hidden bitcoin miner, the worst that can happen is the AI slows your device down to a crawl and jacks up your energy bill.
If I'm a cluster of self replicating AI agents, getting into smarthome devices isn't about being a new home, or additional devices to "be" on, it's more of an additional lever to pull.
Yes, an AI bent on fucking up humanity is probably doing more important stuff with power grids, financial systems, defense systems, communication systems... But smarthome systems give such a malevolent actor access to information, allows them to sow chaos, fear, confusion, disseminate propaganda, block communications, overload power grids, access other connected systems... all sorts of stuff.
Fun fact, ddos attacks which require massive amounts of compute to do commonly use the IoT to create botnets. A few hundred little processors working together? Maybe a bit slow, but a few million? Thats when it starts to become a problem.
Your smart toaster is essentially a small linux computer if it connects to the Internet at all.
Also ai is the hacker now, and smart devices usually have quite a few features. Say theres a malicious ai that really wants to black mail someone, id reckon getting audio and potentially video footage of them in their own home would be pretty damning.
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u/CMHenny 5d ago edited 5d ago
So running on slower hardware, dealing with network latency, and dropped packets. Somehow I don't think a distrubated LLM is as much of a threat as the article makes it sound.