"You can just unplug it": Researchers clash over whether AI could self-replicate
AlexTensor · x · 2026-09-12
Former Anthropic/OpenAI researcher Jacob Coxon told CBS News that you "can't just unplug" a misbehaving AI, since it could copy itself across the internet and spin up thousands of cooperating copies.
@DFintelligence pushes back: self-replication would require massive storage and compute available only in heavily monitored datacenters and hyperscalers. Such activity would trigger every alerting system and saturate networks for a long time — so in practice, "you can just unplug."
A lively debate on how realistic the AI self-copying scenario actually is.
Related event: Ex-OpenAI researcher's "AI can self-replicate" warning sparks backlash(17 posts)→
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