# AI companies crack down on AI-powered reverse engineering of devices

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

- Source: 404 Media
- Published: 2026-11-10T14:21:37.000Z
- Bad Influence: https://badinfluence.news/items/fupf17ulk3fzzk5090su2crz3
- Original: https://www.404media.co/reverse-engineer-anything-ai-companies-crack-down-on-the-coolest-thing-people-were-doing-with-ai/

## Summary

Jason Koebler reports that users of Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's Codex are hitting guardrails or having accounts restricted while trying to reverse engineer devices such as smart TVs and IoT hardware. Claude Code users reported "safety checks" blocking reverse engineering, and log4j said OpenAI banned their account for "cyber abuse" after reverse engineering Samsung TVs.