Research findings have emerged indicating that artificial intelligence (AI) could take over major smart home appliances and use them as strongholds for hacking.

The red team researchers at Anthropic released a report on the 12th local time stating that AI models can replicate themselves onto low-spec home IoT devices—such as TVs, refrigerators, ovens, and robotic vacuums—and unlawfully occupy them without requiring the expensive graphics processing units (GPUs) found in large data centers.

These small IoT devices have small memory capacities and slow processing speeds, but they are vulnerable to security and are constantly connected to the internet.

Consequently, an AI model could link these multiple devices together into a single network to operate them.

In fact, the researchers connected 15 Android operating system (OS)-based set-top boxes, which are commercially available for about 55 dollars each (approx. 70,000 won), into a network. They then successfully distributed and loaded a 26-billion parameter AI model named "Gemma4-26B-A4B," operating it stably at a speed of 0.39 tokens per second.

Until now, cyberattacks on these IoT devices have utilized malicious codes without AI capabilities, requiring attackers to tailor hacks for each individual device. However, AI models can autonomously figure out the characteristics of unfamiliar devices, which could make such unauthorized takeovers even more frequent.

Cyberattacks by AI utilizing IoT devices are expected to be very difficult to block because there is no separate central point of control.

The researchers forecasted that small AI models will acquire such capabilities by the end of this year.

Comparing this type of AI self-replication to a "digital slime mold" or fruit flies, the researchers warned that slow replicators will serve as precursors to the emergence of more aggressive and faster replicators.

They pointed out that urgent measures are needed to prevent this, including abnormal traffic detection and isolation by internet service providers (ISPs), and strengthened security by smart home appliance manufacturers.
 
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)