AI scares and excites cybersecurity professionals at WCX

It's not difficult to find warnings about the dangers of AI. The news that Anthropic's new AI tool is too dangerous for the public due to its alleged hacking capabilities should be of concern to every company making software. That includes automakers. Software has been part of the vehicles in our driveways for decades. In the past few years, even more so, with the push for software-defined vehicles (SDV).

At SAE's 2026 WCX conference, a group of cybersecurity professionals from the vehicle industry discussed what AI and SDVs mean for current and future vehicles and how their jobs are about to get simultaneously easier and more difficult.