Anthropic CEO warns of AI-driven botnet 'swarm' taking over the entire internet — 'In 6–12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet with a persistent botnet'

[u/Just-Grocery-2229]

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/anthropic-ceo-warns-of-ai-driven-botnet-swarm-taking-over-the-entire-internet-in-6-12-months-such-a-swarm-could-be-capable-of-taking-over-the-entire-internet-with-a-persistent-botnet

[u/berael]

Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinda?

In-universe, what happened was that a hacker sent a worm out into the internet which would seek out corporate intranets, break into them, and then export all of their data out onto the internet. The intent was to dump their dirty laundry right out on the front porch for all to see.

He didn't know that many of the corporations had developed true AIs for military use, intending them to be used as weapons. His worm scooped them up along with everything else, and dumped them out onto the internet. The AI weapons, programmed to destroy data...did that.

This lead to abandoning the global internet. Which, ironically, allowed the corporations that he was trying to destroy to deploy smaller private subnets all over as the new means of communication, putting basically all networking completely under corporate ownership. Womp womp.

[u/Dekklin → u/berael]

That sounds like the evil machinations of technonecromancers from alpha centauri

[u/dragons_fire77 → u/Dekklin]

I hope we see that guy in a 2nd game if we're all still here by then.

[u/Dekklin → u/dragons_fire77]

If you're interested, look into Project Orion.

[u/chumbubbles → u/Dekklin]

Death Blossom 🌸 all day

[u/GrowthTent → u/berael]

I could definitely see more restricted local internets in the future.

[u/PineappleLemur → u/GrowthTent]

2 cups 1 string.

[u/scriptedtexture → u/GrowthTent]

more focused and localized propaganda echo chambers

[u/requios → u/berael]

This stuff was cool but sounded so fake when I first played the game, now it’s too close to life to think about lol

[u/Bibbity_Boppity_BOOO → u/requios]

When the game came it, if you were in the know you knew. 

Almost every real techie or economist who has played knows it is very likely what the future looks like.

Actually i think in game the unemployment numbers are permanently high too

[u/No-Project-2353 → u/berael]

From what I remember the recent hugging face hack was cause of a bot swarm basically making their stackoverflow. One of them got login credentials and it was hell let loose from there.

I think AI as it is now is a good cybersecurity tool rather than a way to destroy the internet. Esp cause of how it finds vulnerabilities normal people don’t see so you can engineer fixes. Like hacking corporate intranets irl should not be easily possible unless their sw team consists of a janitor and a house plant. That and the sales team copy and pastes their logins into an outlook email that they accidentally replied all with.

[u/berael → u/No-Project-2353]

People always forget that the most effective hacking technique will always be calling random extensions and saying "hi, this is Bob from IT, I need you to verify your username and password". 

[u/No-Project-2353 → u/berael]

Literally, the real hack all along was social engineering.

[u/supersaiyanmrskeltal → u/berael]

He didn't know that many of the corporations had developed true AIs for military use, intending them to be used as weapons. His worm scooped them up along with everything else, and dumped them out onto the internet. The AI weapons, programmed to destroy data...did that.

Isn't there something called a Blackwall keeping the old internet in check or something along those lines? I just remember someone telling me that the AI's in the old internet just will just start killing people if they escape.

[u/berael → u/supersaiyanmrskeltal]

Yeah, the Blackwall is keeping all of the hostile AIs bottled up in what was the old internet, and away from the networks that everyone uses. 

Also, the Blackwall itself is an AI. 

If that sounds like a terrible long-term solution, then...yes. That's one of the quiet but massive problems brewing in the background of the story.  

[u/Doomhammered → u/berael]

Was I asleep the whole time I played the game? Why don’t I remember any of this

[u/Worldly-Pay7342 → u/Doomhammered]

It's background lore for the most part. Side quests and whatnot.

[u/dynamitfiske → u/berael]

"Ooops I scooped up some military grade AI." I think the original formulation was "unshackled" but then also "mutated".

That story tells more about Mike Pondsmith's storytelling skills exceeding his computer knowledge and that maybe his sci-fi setting not plugging directly into reality.

[u/Bibbity_Boppity_BOOO → u/dynamitfiske]

I think he wrote it at a time when even people who worked on ai didn’t know shit about ai. In fact his version of ai was about as good as anyone’s at the time. 

The stories are decades old right? They date back to the 80s