The U.S. just barred foreign nationals from accessing two advanced AI models — Fable and Mythos — citing national security. Around the same time, the Five Eyes intelligence alliance warned that AI-enabled cyberattacks are "months, not years" away. Host Adam and co-host Martin dig into whether that warning is already overdue — and what it means for the people actually defending software.
They're joined by Assaf, a longtime security leader (and Adam's former boss) and author of Lessons from the Front Line: Insights from a Cybersecurity Career. The conversation moves from the headlines to the harder truth underneath them: AI adoption is climbing, yet more than half of security and IT workers are considering leaving their jobs — burned out, under-resourced, and worried AI is coming for their roles. Assaf's take is contrarian and sharp: the real failure isn't AI, it's leadership translation and a training pipeline we're quietly demolishing. As Adam puts it, "this is not a security problem, it's an engineering problem."
A candid, news-driven look at AI, national security, and the security workforce squeeze — and a surprisingly optimistic read on where it all goes next.
Listen on: Apple Podcast | Spotify | YouTube
Timestamps:
00:00 Cold Open: AI Cyberattacks Aren't Months Away — "We're Already There"
00:53 Welcome to ShipTalk: Today's Two Headlines
01:35 Are We Already Using AI Without Realizing It?
02:41 Five Eyes Warns AI Cyberattacks Are "Months, Not Years" Away
04:31 Harness by the Numbers: Half of Security Pros Want to Quit
05:25 Meet the Guest: Assaf Keren (ex-PayPal & Qualtrics CSO)
06:14 "Secure by Design, But For Real This Time"
08:46 The ISSA Survey: Why Security Jobs Keep Getting Harder
10:01 The "Triple Whammy" Burning Out Security Teams
11:49 Have We Been Here Before? Cloud & the Changing SOC Role
13:32 The Contrarian Take: AI Could Make Security Better
15:41 The Real Failure: We're Demolishing the Training Pipeline
18:41 Weak Leadership, or a Security Translation Problem?
22:05 Trust: The CISO's Real Business Function
23:20 What Teams Get Wrong About AI + Software Delivery
24:37 Debrief: Adam & Martin's Takeaways
26:31 Wrap-Up: Stop Talking, Start Shipping
