David Manheim: Cost Analysis of the Hugging Face Swarm Attack
davidmanheim · x · 2026-09-02
David Manheim challenges the claim that the Hugging Face attack was too expensive for a teenager to execute, providing a cost calculation.
Estimation logic:
- Assumed 1000 agents involved.
- Generously estimated 100k tokens per hour per agent.
- Running continuously for four days.
- Conclusion: The cost isn't prohibitively high, especially considering that open-source models with similar capabilities will be widely available by 2028 or 2030. He also critiques the absurdity of requiring precise quantification to acknowledge risks.
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