How AI could enable critical infrastructure collapse

Abstract

Analysis of how AI is lowering barriers to cyberattacks against critical infrastructure by automating reconnaissance and weaponization, compressing attack timelines from years to minutes, and enabling autonomous operations that outpace human defenders. The author argues that as offensive AI capabilities advance faster than defensive ones, the historic offense-defense balance is shifting dangerously, creating tail risks of catastrophic failure for power grids, hospitals, and water systems. – AI-generated abstract.