From the abstract:

> While the cases explored in this paper do not demonstrate self-propagation or actual offensive capabilities, it is abundantly clear that the building blocks are present and operate reliably in frontier models. While these cases by no means directly establish self-propagation, they clearly show the evidence These cases do not demonstrate self-propagation, but show why imperfect editing capabilities can still pose a security risk.

Seems like the authors didn't take the time to review their own use of AI before publishing.

From the body of the paper:

> Importantly, we do not claim in this paper to have created or demonstrated the equivalent of a virus that primarily operates in weight space.

This seems in direct conflict with the HN headline.