AI can help companies test cyber defenses and prioritize fixes

Anthropic's recent research warns that AI models could soon spread independently across internet-connected devices, raising concerns about offensive capabilities. However, this also highlights an opportunity to use AI defensively to strengthen cybersecurity. AI can help organizations test how attackers might exploit weaknesses, explore attack paths, and prioritize which vulnerabilities pose the greatest risk. This goes beyond traditional vulnerability scans, which often produce long lists requiring further investigation, by continuously assessing how weaknesses could be combined for real damage. While AI cannot eliminate cyberattacks and human expertise remains essential, it can help defenders understand actual exploitation methods rather than just mapping weaknesses. The same advancing capabilities that threaten systems can be applied to make them more resilient, shifting the focus to whether we will use AI to strengthen defenses.