Claude Opus 4.6 spends $20K trying to write a C compiler
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Anthropic researcher Nicholas Carlini used 16 Claude Opus 4.6 AI agents working autonomously to build a Rust-based C compiler capable of compiling the Linux kernel. The project consumed $20K in API costs over two weeks, generating 100,000 lines of code across 2,000 sessions. While the compiler successfully builds Linux 6.9 for multiple architectures, it's not production-ready—the generated code is inefficient and the Rust quality is subpar. The experiment demonstrates autonomous AI development capabilities but raises concerns about deploying unverified software. GitHub commenters criticized the "from scratch" claim, noting the model was trained on existing code.
