The Most Dangerous AI Hacking Techniques Still Have Humans in the Loop
For now, the answer to Kettle’s question is nuanced. He concluded that AI is perhaps minimally capable but extremely limited in its ability to devise new attack paths in a fully autonomous way. “So this is a major attack surface and potentially spills into a lot of different attack types.”The finding came out of months of experiments that began in September 2025 using Anthropic and OpenAI’s latest models at the time.
- ▪For now, the answer to Kettle’s question is nuanced.
- ▪He concluded that AI is perhaps minimally capable but extremely limited in its ability to devise new attack paths in a fully autonomous way.
- ▪“So this is a major attack surface and potentially spills into a lot of different attack types.”The finding came out of months of experiments that began in September 2025 using Anthropic and OpenAI’s latest models at the time.
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| Original publisher | WIRED |
| Canonical URL | https://www.wired.com/story/the-most-dangerous-ai-hacking-techniques-still-have-human-input/ |
| Publication time | Wed, 05 Aug 2026 19:42:12 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-08-05T19:50:41.636Z |
| Last seen | 2026-08-05T19:50:41.636Z |
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Lily Hay NewmanSecurityAug 5, 2026 3:42 PMThe Most Dangerous AI Hacking Techniques Still Have Human InputSecurity researcher James Kettle tried to push the limit of AI’s hacking abilities—and discovered how effective it can be when combined with human expertise.Photo-Illustration: Wired Staff; Getty ImagesCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyAgentic AI has permanently changed cybersecurity by making it quicker and easier to discover vulnerabilities in software and fix them—or develop so-called exploits to weaponize them.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at WIRED.
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