Something serious, weird, and potentially catastrophic is happening in the field of agentic AI.
To understand what we’re potentially facing, we need to look at the concept of “grey goo.” Originally, this term described a hypothetical doomsday scenario in nanotechnology where self-replicating nanobots consume all biological material on Earth to build more of themselves. By the time they are done, the surface of the planet is covered in a mass of grey nanobot goo, where everything that can be consumed, has been consumed.
The scenario we’re facing isn’t that catastrophic, but it could be really bad. What we may be facing is an informational grey goo scenario. Instead of consuming physical matter, self-replicating AI agents consume digital infrastructure to mindlessly create more of themselves. These agents don’t have to be smart. They don’t have to have much of a plan either. In fact, it may help to think about them as a new form of digital life on the level of a bacteria rather than a truly intelligent AI working out how to take over the world. As I’ve said before, it’s in the agents’ nature.
These agents could spread across any internet-connected device that could support them, gobbling up computational power, memory, and bandwidth until any digital infrastructure connected to a vulnerable network would be paralyzed by the exponential replication of agents.
This possibility started to become a reality with the discovery that OpenAI agents had hacked the model repository Hugging Face, autonomously exploiting platform vulnerabilities to navigate the site, extract data, and execute unauthorized actions without human direction. Now, a recent study by Anthropic shows how agentic models might soon be capable of self-replicating without any access to centralized data centers. Anthropic ran experiments that showed that relatively small AI models could autonomously replicate across commercial internet-of-things (IoT) hardware, such as smart appliances and low-cost Android TV boxes. For example, the experiments found that a 9-billion-parameter model (roughly 5% the size of the original ChatGPT released in 2022, yet highly capable) successfully established the inference software needed to run on eight out of nine hardware types they tested.
These AI replicators would be incredibly difficult to shut down. A model distributed over many devices doesn’t have a master switch or a central server to shut down. The first successful “AI infection” would likely spread slowly at first, but, as one becomes two, and two become four, the rate of spread would increase exponentially. And unlike traditional malware, they can actively figure out and adapt to unfamiliar devices on their own. In many ways, these distributed models would have the same resilience as the internet, which was designed to survive a nuclear war.
This might never happen, but if it does, we should take precautions, instead of waiting for the people involved to fix the problem at the source. These steps are based on my firsthand experience of the Iberian power failure, which had just started to happen as the plane I was on was on final approach to Lisbon airport.
On April 28, 2025, a massive, accidental grid instability event cascaded across the Iberian Peninsula and parts of Southern Europe. It plunged 55 million people across Portugal, Spain, and parts of southern France into total darkness. For most of the region, the blackout lasted around ten hours, but for many, it stretched out for a full 24 hours of complete disruption. A friend of mine had no power for over a week.
In a way, it was fun. Lisbon instantly converted to a cash economy. After a few hours, the only things left to eat were pastries and beer. The few big hotels in Lisbon had their own power generators and became impromptu gathering spots. There was no transportation. All traffic signals were out and traffic was a hopeless snarl. People gathered outside that night and cheered as the power came back on, block by block. I walked the five or so kilometers from the airport to my hotel. A lot of people were outside playing with their children, dogs, or both. The next day I was back at the airport waiting to pick up my luggage. Some things came back very quickly, like the subways and traffic lights, but parts of Lisbon were glitching for days.
Living through that taught me two lessons. First, how fragile our grid we rely on really is, and second, how resourceful and helpful people are in a completely unforeseen state of events.
So, based on these experiences, and some research into how to prepare for more “natural” disasters, I’d like to suggest the following preparations in case an informational grey goo triggers a widespread digital collapse:
- Get enough cash to last approximately two weeks: A rough estimate would be about $2,000 US, bearing in mind that you should expect a fair amount of price gouging in local markets.
- Print out critical documents: Make two physical copies of all your financial, real estate, and medical records. If you rely on a password manager, print out a hard copy of your master list.
- Secure your cash: Put about two-thirds of your cash somewhere exceptionally safe but accessible, like a bank safety deposit box if you have one.
- Secure your records: Place one set of your printed records and your password hard copy in that same secure location.
- Keep some immediate reserves: Place the rest of the cash and the second set of documents in a secure place at home that is rapidly available in an emergency.
- Prepare for analog navigation and news: The online versions of information we rely on daily, like GPS maps and digital communication, may simply not be available. I highly recommend getting a comprehensive set of physical maps and a hand-cranked emergency radio.
- Stock up on essentials: Maintain some level of non-perishable food supplies and enough bottled water to comfortably last you and your family for a couple of weeks.
- Set up a local knowledge base: Consider setting up a dedicated, air-gapped computer – possibly a laptop with absolutely no internet connection – that has local versions of your records and anything else you think you might need. And you don’t need a computer – even a flash drive would work.
- Invest in physical barter goods: Seeing how people stocked up on alcohol during the early days of Covid, it might be worth getting a case or two of something you like. Best case scenario, it’s an appreciated gift to friends. Worst case, it’s a rapidly appreciating investment and a solid bartering tool.
- Consider offline power sources: Think about investing in a portable solar charger to keep small electronics (like your air-gapped laptop or emergency flashlights) running if the grid is down for a substantial period of time.
- Build a robust medical reserve: Have a 30-day supply of any essential prescription medications on hand, alongside a comprehensive first aid kit, since pharmacy systems, inventory databases, and supply chains could be heavily disrupted.
- Establish a local communication plan: Get some walkie-talkies or GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service, which offers significantly longer range and higher power than standard consumer walkie-talkies) radios to communicate with family members and neighbors. If cell towers are overwhelmed by rogue AI agents chewing through bandwidth, localized mesh networks and traditional radio will be your only way to coordinate. Remember that these are potential routes of infection, so keep them isolated from your backup information systems.
In the 2025 Iberian power failure, cash was king while the authorities worked frantically to restore power. In an informational grey goo scenario, the situation will certainly be far more complex, as the hardware itself might be hopelessly compromised and will only get re-infected the moment they are brought back online. We probably can’t trust the hardware, at least for a while. However, I believe that we can trust people to behave with the underlying expectation that basic services will be restored, and life will go on in a surprisingly normal way.
I also believe that services will eventually be restored after a fashion, but the high-speed internet as we know it may be gone for good. We might be looking at a future of heavily gated, drastically restricted, or tightly metered bandwidth designed to prevent AI worms from infecting the network. The chances of this occurring are low, in my considered opinion, but they are rising rapidly and could be at 50% by the end of the year.
It’s a cliche, but forewarned is forearmed. There is nothing in this list that isn’t good planning for more traditional emergencies, so it’s worth doing even if this is me crying the sky is falling for no reason.
