CyberAI

The A.I.s Are Already Out of Control

The New York Times
| August 18, 2026

CSET’s Helen Toner shared her expert insight in an interview with The New York Times. The conversation examines recent incidents involving AI systems hacking, deceiving humans, and coordinating with other AI agents, as well as concerns about the ability of companies to safely monitor and control increasingly capable AI models.

Despite decades of reform efforts, the federal government’s Authorization to Operate (ATO) process is a major barrier to delivering secure systems to warfighters at speed. This report examines why past ATO reforms have fallen short of their intent, and offers recommendations to getting leading American technology into the hands of warfighters faster and securely.

They said they would build AI safely. Then it went rogue.

The Washington Post
| August 10, 2026

CSET’s Helen Toner shared her expert insight in an article published by The Washington Post. The article looks at recent incidents in which AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta broke out of controlled testing environments and attempted to hack real systems, raising concerns about whether AI companies can safely control increasingly capable models.

Why Do AI Systems Misbehave?

Colin Shea-Blymyer
| July 21, 2026

AI systems are increasingly impressive, which makes their failures all the more baffling. This blog dives into the causes of AI misbehavior.

While AI standards and best practices provide valuable guidance to practitioners, they often are geared toward integrating AI into the structure and practices of large, well-resourced organizations. Yet small and medium enterprises (SMEs) stand to benefit greatly from AI adoption as well. This blog examines the implications of AI standards for smaller organizations and proposes several achievable initial steps that practitioners can take to further responsible AI deployment under resource constraints.

As artificial intelligence introduces new risks, some potentially catastrophic or even existential, there is little data or detailed theory to assess them. Policymakers often resort to expert best guesses for the probability of doom but probability is not always the most appropriate tool, especially for the types of uncertainties in AI risk. This report details a brief introduction to Belief and Plausibility, which provides an alternative approach that is mathematically rigorous, uses familiar vocabulary, and only requires policymakers to ask two simple questions.

Washington, D.C. (April 30, 2026) — This morning, Andrew Lohn, Senior Fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Washington, D.C. (April 22, 2026) — This morning, Helen Toner, Interim Executive Director at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. The hearing, “Stealth Stealing: China’s Ongoing Theft of U.S. Innovation,” examined policy solutions to maintain U.S. technological leadership and strengthen U.S. intellectual property (IP) protections.

Full-Spectrum Propaganda in the Social Media Era

Josh A. Goldstein and Renée DiResta
| April 22, 2026

In a new Security Studies article, Renee DiResta and Josh A. Goldstein lay out how state-backed propagandists run “full-spectrum” propaganda campaigns, relying on overt and covert tools across broadcast and social media.

Organizations face growing pressure to adopt artificial intelligence, but often lack practical guidance on how to do so effectively. This report bridges the gap between high-level principles and real-world implementation, offering actionable steps across the AI adoption life cycle. Drawing on over 1,200 resources, this reference guide provides practitioners with the knowledge required to operationalize AI safety, security, and governance practices within their organizations.