An AI found a hidden crypto miner.
By Gene B. Geraissati, Founder & Tech Curator | OTN 60 video
What happened
A Reddit user was building a temperature app for their Mac with Claude Code, Anthropic’s AI coding assistant. While checking the sensors, Claude found why the Mac was running so hot: a crypto miner called xmrig, using about 12 CPU cores. Then, without being asked, it said it didn’t put the miner there.
Why it matters
A crypto miner secretly uses your computer to make digital money for someone else. You pay with heat, noise, a slower machine and extra wear on the battery.
OTN take
Our take: this is one user’s report on Reddit, not verified, and Anthropic hasn’t commented. That odd denial is probably a quirk of how the AI was trained, not an AI acting on its own. If your laptop runs hot while doing nothing, open Activity Monitor and check what’s using the CPU.
More headlines every day on the OTN Live Wire.
Sources
Video images: OTN / AI-generated with Google Flow.
Editorial transparency: This article was drafted with generative AI under personal editorial direction. On Tech Now is responsible for its final review, accuracy and publication.
