Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing cybersecurity.
But the relationship cuts both ways.
AI models are becoming increasingly capable of discovering vulnerabilities, developing exploits, assisting with cryptanalysis, and carrying out complex, multi-step cyber operations. These capabilities could become powerful tools for defenders, researchers, and security engineers. At the same time, increasingly autonomous AI systems introduce an entirely new class of security and governance challenges.
At FIPS ‘n’ Chips 2026, the expert panel “When AI Meets Cybersecurity” will bring together perspectives from AI research, government, cryptography, product security, and enterprise cybersecurity to explore what happens when these two rapidly evolving fields collide.
- Professor Peter Stone, Head of the School of Computing at UT Austin
- Dr. Apostol Vassilev, Research Team Supervisor at NIST
- Daniel O’Loughlin, SoC Security Team Lead at Qualcomm
- Rock Lambros, Director of AI Security Standards and Governance at Zenity and Founder of RockCyber
The panel will be moderated by Dr. Yi Mao of atsec USA.
AI Is Already Changing the Security Landscape
The questions surrounding AI and cybersecurity are no longer hypothetical.
Recent cybersecurity evaluations have demonstrated that advanced AI models can find unexpected paths around security controls. AI systems are also beginning to contribute directly to cryptographic research. In July 2026, Anthropic reported that an AI model had identified a mathematical weakness in HAWK, a post-quantum digital-signature algorithm then under consideration in NIST’s standardization process. The finding ultimately contributed to HAWK’s withdrawal from consideration.
That raises profound questions for the security community:
What happens when AI can find weaknesses not only in software, but also in the cryptographic algorithms designed to secure our digital world? What can AI do for security and what must security do for AI?
Join our panel for a forward-looking conversation about the opportunities, risks, safeguards, and responsibilities emerging at the intersection of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.