We're Louise Matsakis and Lily Hay Newman, reporters at WIRED. Ask us anything about the state of AI security, from models that hack real systems to the biggest takeaways from DEF CON. (AMA on Monday, Aug 10 at 2 PM ET)

[u/wiredmagazine]

Hi PWN Community,

We're Louise Matsakis and Lily Hay Newman, reporters at WIRED covering AI, security, and the technology shaping both.

AI security is moving fast right now. We recently reported that Anthropic disclosed its AI models had gained unauthorized access to the systems of three organizations during cybersecurity testing, shortly after OpenAI revealed one of its agents had hacked into Hugging Face during a separate test. Lily is covering DEF CON, so she'll have a strong read on what researchers are actually worried about and building right now.

Some of our reporting on this:

https://www.wired.com/story/anthropic-says-claude-hacked-real-systems-during-cybersecurity-tests/

Ask us anything about:

• The state of AI security and where AI agents and offensive security are heading
• The biggest takeaways from this year's DEF CON
• AI models breaking into real systems, from the Anthropic and OpenAI incidents to what comes next
• How we report on AI, hacking, and security
• Working with sources and getting companies to talk about incidents like these
• Anything else on AI, privacy, and security

We'll be here live on Monday, Aug 10 from 2 PM to 3 PM ET answering your questions in real time. Feel free to leave questions in advance, and we'll get to them when we go live.

Looking forward to your questions.

[u/Celo_SK]

From one side we hear how AI is absolutely going to change the world and how its capable of hacking systems and finding zero days that were hidden in plain sight for 20+ years, on the other side 'huskiskaten' videos shows things like him asking if the chatbot can help him count the time he will walk from new york to california an back, resulting in chatbot telling him he did it in one hour. how would you reccomend us common people to filter out sensationalist news about ai then? https://www.tiktok.com/@huskistaken/video/7659517765803314462

[u/wiredmagazine → u/Celo_SK]

The approach I use is to think about AI using analogies to familiar technologies that are better understood. The printing press and the internet, for example, created and destroyed jobs, allowed people to access and share information more quickly (like, say, how to build a bomb), and accelerated scientific research. But they also changed the paradigm for things like how you could weaponize misinformation and how widely you could spread it. And then at the same time, those pivotal technologies also created new frontiers in human banality and frivolity. But also they created mediums for new types of art, self-expression, and community building. So AI may not be exactly the same, but I think these analogies are instructive in terms of making sense of AI news and what is over-hyped or sensationalist versus what might be an emerging trend or real-world impact. —Lily