AI Takes Over the Internet

Scary catastrophic damage. Given the accelerating rate of AI capability development, it’s my worry that in 6-12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet with a persistent botnet (potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage), and that the scale of damage would continue to increase from there if AI becomes more powerful without the necessary guardrails. It’s also easy to dismiss OAI-HF as the failure of one company, but I believe that would be a mistake. Similar, though less severe, incidents have happened across the industry, including at Anthropic, and I believe it’s incumbent on every frontier AI company to act as if OAI-HF had happened to them. We Must Pace the Frontier: I’ve written a new essay on why the AI industry should slow down, with a three-part plan for doing so. Anthropic is unilaterally committing to the first of t...

A screenshot of an X post quotes a warning about AI swarms taking over the internet through a persistent botnet and causing massive damage. Below it is a post by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei announcing an essay about slowing down the AI industry. The joke is the ironic juxtaposition: the alarming prediction is presented as proof that the AI industry’s own warnings and plans to “pace the frontier” feel scary and self-reinforcing.

• @gentoomemes / 21972 2026-09-12