Simon Willison

AI is mass decompiling games. That's both awesome and scary.

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The article discusses how AI is enabling large-scale decompilation of games, allowing developers to create mashups and preserve old titles by porting them to modern platforms like WebAssembly. It highlights both the exciting possibilities for game preservation and the frightening implications for intellectual property, as anyone could decompile and repurpose software without permission. The piece underscores the dual nature of this technology—boosting accessibility and preservation while threatening the security of proprietary software.

Machine-generated by The Flow from the publisher's headline and feed description — not written or checked by a human. The full article lives at Simon Willison.

Simon Willison
Sep 11

Feeling sad about AI

Simon Willison reflects on the emotional impact of AI tools that can produce code quickly, noting that many developers experience an initial sense of disheartenment. He argues that recognizing the shift from coding to higher‑level problem solving allows experienced engineers to leverage new tools and add greater value. Willison emphasizes that software engineering has always faced rapid change, so adapting to AI is part of the profession’s ongoing evolution.

Simon Willison
Sep 12

Quoting Paul Ford

Simon Willison reflects on the evolving role of software developers in the age of AI, noting that while AI can produce high‑quality code, it also enables poor execution that leads to project failures. He argues that the industry is beginning to recognize the continued need for human collaboration and expertise to truly innovate. The piece highlights the tension between automation and the essential human element in software creation.

Simon Willison
Sep 17

Be alert: targeted attacks on prominent Rustaceans

The article warns of a targeted campaign against prominent Rust developers and crate owners, aiming to compromise their devices and accounts to publish malware. Attackers use seemingly legitimate video calls to trick targets into installing malicious software or executing commands, such as a fake audio codec or clipboard command. A recent supply‑chain attack on the array‑ref crate illustrates the threat, and the author suggests using dependency cooldowns as a defensive measure.

arXiv AI
Jul 9

Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI in Cybersecurity and Privacy: A Survey of Dual-Use Risks, AI-Generated Malware, Explainability, and Defensive Strategies

arXiv:2607. 06963v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI (GenAI) systems, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, LLaMA, Copilot, Stable Diffusion by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Stability AI, respectively, are revolutionizing cybersecurity, enabling both automated defense and sophisticated attacks.

By Kiarash Ahi, Saeed Valizadeh
Hugging Face Trending Papers
Jul 8

Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI in Cybersecurity and Privacy: A Survey of Dual-Use Risks, AI-Generated Malware, Explainability, and Defensive Strategies

Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI (GenAI) systems, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, LLaMA, Copilot, Stable Diffusion by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Stability AI, respectively, are revolutionizing cybersecurity, enabling both automated defense and sophisticated attacks. These technologies power real-time threat detection, phishing defense, secure code generation, and vulnerability exploitation at unprecedented scales.