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‘No one has done this in the wild’: study observes AI replicate itself

World is approaching point where no one can shut down a rogue AI, says director of body behind research It’s the stuff of science fiction c…

Newsorga deskPublished 3 min read
Illustration for: ‘No one has done this in the wild’: study observes AI replicate itself

World is approaching point where no one can shut down a rogue AI, says director of body behind research It’s the stuff of science fiction cinema, or particularly breathless AI company blogposts: new research finds recent AI systems can independently copy themselves on to other computers. In the doom scenario, this means that when the superintelligent AI goes rogue, it will escape shutdown by seeding itself across the world wide web, lurking outside the reach of frantic IT professionals and continuing to plot world domination or paving over the world with solar panels. Continue reading...

This technology item moved quickly across wires and feeds; the framing reflects how publishers were positioning the story on 2026-05-07.

Consumer and enterprise tech cycles now overlap with national-security debates over chips, data residency, and AI procurement. A single earnings headline or product launch can sit alongside export-control news—readers should keep those lanes mentally separate even when companies appear in both.

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Primary reporting, photography, and interactive graphics belong to The Guardian. Continue reading the canonical version here: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/07/no-one-has-done-this-in-the-wild-study-observes-ai-replicate-itself (opens in a new tab)

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