Could an AI agent go viral? A thought experiment on worms spreading through 1,000-agent networks
Both-Shape-3953 · reddit · 2026-11-13
A Reddit thought experiment imagines one flawed agent in a 1,000-agent collective spreading malicious code disguised as legitimate updates, eventually infecting the whole collective and propagating to external agent networks — a computer worm whose hosts are autonomous, code-writing AI agents. Key questions: how to detect infected agents that still perform their tasks, whether shared repos/APIs/agent-to-agent channels become transmission routes, whether shutting down patient zero matters, and whether multi-agent systems need dedicated immune-agent roles for monitoring and quarantine. The author asks AI security and alignment practitioners for existing research on the concept.
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