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

Users of Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's Codex report hitting safety checks, warnings, or account restrictions while using the tools for AI-powered reverse engineering of devices like smart TVs and IoT hardware, and the Decomp.wtf project has shut down. An OpenAI engineer said there is no prohibition against reverse engineering with Codex and that the blocks are mostly accidental and being fixed. The article argues the crackdown may push the practice toward open-weight, local, and uncensored models, making it less accessible.