Previously, we showed that ATP hydrolysis removes RIG-I from lower-affinity self-RNAs (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib19">Lässig et al., 2015</xref>), revealing how ATP turnover helps RIG-I distinguish viral from self-RNA and explaining why a mutation in a motif that slows down ATP hydrolysis causes the autoimmune disease Singleton-Merten syndrome (SMS).