The next great hacker may not be human.
For decades, cybersecurity has depended on researchers who must think like the people attacking computer systems to successfully defend them. Now, a growing number of those “attackers” aren’t people at all. They’re artificial intelligence, or AI, agents. Capable of discovering software security vulnerabilities and generating harmful exploits, these agents don’t need to eat, sleep or log off for a break. They can work endlessly, targeting power grids, internet infrastructure, hospitals and more.
This knowledge led Yan Shoshitaishvili to an unsettling realization: The next researchers who stop these autonomous agents might not be human either.
Shoshitaishvili is an associate professor of computer science and engineering in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. He and his team in the Center for Cybersecurity and Trusted Foundations, or CTF, have organized the Conference of Synthetic Security Research, or SynSec, hailed as the first national opportunity for academia and industry to explore what happens when AI agents become the researchers.
“Like it or not, agentic AI is here,” Shoshitaishvili says. “The real question isn’t whether we should engage with it, but how quickly and rigorously we understand its impact on system security. Attackers won’t hesitate to harness it for their gain, so if we’re not exploring those same areas in academic research, we’ll be left behind.”
So what happens when AI begins to take on a larger role in how research itself is done?
On October 22–23, 2026, cybersecurity experts across industry and academia will converge at ASU SkySong in Scottsdale, Arizona, to answer that question. At SynSec, they will stress-test computer security research conducted, evaluated and even presented by AI with minimal human involvement.
The conference’s format is intentionally provocative. In its primary track, AI must be listed as the first author on submitted papers. In some cases, the AI will also generate the conference talk.