automation of expertise

dave kasten @David_Kasten

2026-08-13 — saved image

dave kasten @David_Kasten . 12h
One genuinely sad, complicated, awful thing I experienced at defcon -- the very concept of a cool bug, of a bold and creative CTF hack, is going away.

We're in the foothills of the singularity now, and even the most impressive hackers on planet Earth are starting to be outstripped by AI.

I feel...well, I feel very confused and awful about this. I've loved how @defcon feels like a celebration of human vigor and freedom, a space for creative, clever, playful people to do their best work.

And now, John Henry is being outworked by the steel-driving machine. We're just in a place where LLMs can Do The Job, as well as humans can.

I suspect that for a brief moment, this will be a shining period of uplift for some hackers, as their ambitions and capabilities rise higher than ever before. But for so many others, a door is swinging closed.

And that's something melancholy. No denying it.

[quoted tweet]
s1r1us in sf 🏝️ @S1r1u5_ . Aug 12
i talked to a lot of people who played the defcon ctf finals to understand how llms affected them, both professionally and mentally.

i went in hoping to learn that human intuition ... [cut off]

ai capabilitiesdefconhackingsingularityautomation of expertise