AI Worms Warning Sparks Calls for Safety Laws at Dublin Summit
DUBLIN: From the prospect of refrigerator-infecting AI worms to warnings of “major” security incidents on the horizon, calls to put safety first dominated an industry summit on Wednesday.
Concerns about AI guardrails have soared after models developed by OpenAI and Anthropic were involved in security incidents during testing, piling pressure on governments and companies to regulate the technology.
AI worms: what the Dublin summit heard
Google DeepMind chair Demis Hassabis warned that AI capabilities were growing fast. He described the testing incidents as “early warning shots” fired by systems that “aren’t that powerful yet”.
“So the incidents aren’t that major,” he said. “But they could be, looking into next year and the next couple of years, if we don’t do more work as an industry and individually as companies and governments on securing these systems.”
New AI models should probably first be tested in offline “sandboxes”, Hassabis added, after other companies’ models escaped the closed environments used to assess their capabilities.
Microsoft president Brad Smith called for regulation, saying industry and governments must “act with urgency” to create “real and effective safety standards” to contain the risks linked to artificial intelligence.
“There are more safety rules for a carton of milk than for AI. There are more safety rules for your oven than for AI,” he told the conference. “We need to recognise that the power of AI has moved faster than the safety for it. Safety needs to catch up. And we’re going to need some new AI safety laws and rules.”
Safety brakes and mandatory incident reports
Smith said AI agents should be equipped with “safety brakes” that users could activate in the event of an incident, and AI providers should face mandatory incident-reporting obligations.
Smith pointed to a recent Anthropic report suggesting small AI models may be only months away from behaving like computer worms, copying themselves from one internet-connected device to the next. As tech companies race to build ever more powerful AI directly into phones, laptops, cars and household devices rather than running it in distant data centres, Anthropic said such AI might eventually hop autonomously from device to device.
“I mean, seriously? I don’t want AI worms in my refrigerator,” Smith told the conference. “I just don’t want any worms of any kind in my refrigerator. And I think most of the public feels that way too.”
A self-replicating AI worm would be hard to stamp out, Anthropic said, because there would be no central switch to turn off.
Regulators push for more testing; industry warns against overreach
The European Union’s tech chief, Henna Virkkunen, told the conference that AI firms needed to invest more time in testing their systems to retain control over them. The European Union has sent information requests to all major AI companies asking what safety and security measures they have in place. The European Commission gained new regulatory powers in August under the AI Act, the world’s most far-reaching rules for curbing potentially dangerous uses of the technology.
But OpenAI chief financial officer Sarah Friar warned that a “balance” was needed so safety rules did not put the brakes on innovation.
What this means for phone users in Pakistan
The shift of AI from data centres into phones matters directly for Pakistani consumers. On-device AI features are already arriving in new handsets sold here, from camera tools to voice assistants.
Related: Apple Launches HomePod Mini 2 With Siri AI and Sound Glow
With more powerful models living on the device itself, the summit’s warning boils down to a simple consumer lesson: keep software updated, download apps from official stores, and treat unexpected permission requests with suspicion.
Related: Samsung One UI 9 Update Bricks Some Galaxy A57 Phones at Setup
FAQs
What are AI worms?
The term describes a scenario in which small AI models copy themselves from one internet-connected device to another, much like computer worms.
Who called for new AI safety laws at the Dublin summit?
Microsoft president Brad Smith urged governments and industry to “act with urgency” on safety standards, while Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis called the recent testing incidents “early warning shots”.
What are AI “safety brakes”?
Smith proposed that AI agents should include user-activated brakes for emergencies, alongside mandatory incident-reporting obligations for AI providers.
How is the EU responding?
EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said firms must invest more in testing, noting the bloc has sent information requests to major AI companies and gained new powers under the AI Act in August.
