'Reverse Engineer Anything': AI Companies Crack Down on the Coolest Thing People Were Doing With AI

Major AI companies are increasingly blocking or limiting accounts of users performing AI-powered reverse engineering on electronic devices. While users and security researchers have used models like Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's Codex to hack or customize smart devices and IoT hardware, companies are tightening guardrails due to cybersecurity pressures and to protect hardware manufacturers. Consequently, practitioners are shifting toward open-weight and local models. Open article →