Headline is misleading
Many point out the paper itself says it did not demonstrate a weight-space virus, only building blocks like weight editing, and some call the work AI-written slop.
Open weights enable defense
Some argue open weights, hashing, abliteration and fine-tuning let people inspect and fix tampered models, while others counter that nobody understands weights well enough for many eyes to help.
Real but speculative risk
Others find the idea interesting as a security field, likening it to memes spreading through training data or Thompson's trusting-trust attack.