Back-of-envelope math says air-gapped weight exfiltration via CPU temps would take 15,000 years
anshulkundaje · x · 2026-09-19
Responding to Noam Brown's CPU temperature-cycling air-gap scenario, rlacombe runs an order-of-magnitude estimate: even a minimal useful 2B model at FP4 means 8 billion bits to move across the air gap. With a generous 60-second cooldown per cycle, copying the weights would take 4.8e11 seconds — about 15,000 years — and requires a receiver model listening to temp switches in the first place. Conclusion: security concerns about ASI deserve attention, but the sci-fi hype is on the doomer side.
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