Event Recap: Defending Against AI-Powered Threats from Cyberspace
On December 17, 2025, ASP hosted a discussion on the increasing role of AI in state-sponsored offensive cyber operations and how the national security community is responding to this emerging challenge. The discussion featured insights and analysis from Edward Wittenstein, Director of the Schmidt Program on Artificial Intelligence, Emerging Technologies, and National Power at Yale University and Emelia Probasco, Senior Fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET). AI Imperative 2030 Director Courtney Manning led and moderated the discussion.
Key takeaways included:
- Chinese state-sponsored threat actors are using AI-assisted cyber operations to blur the traditional frameworks of cyber offense and defense. Determining whether an attack constitutes espionage, criminal activity, or cyber warfare is becoming more difficult to parse.
- Accelerating AI innovation and ensuring strong ethical guardrails are not mutually exclusive goals. U.S. innovators need to be empowered to win the AI race with China while keeping their strong ethics intact. Responsible AI, which includes detailed threat reporting and collaboration with nonprofit and academic research institutions, is a winning strategy because it drives global collaboration and reduces risk.
- The U.S.’s ever increasing cloud-based attack surface, openness around its cyber-related declaratory policy, and expansive definition of “critical infrastructure” allow China to keep their offensive cyber actions below the threshold requiring a military response. New strategies are needed to combat grey zone, semi-automated cyber warfare.
- While China’s ability to subsidize AI development and force domestic AI adoption is a strategic advantage, the U.S. remains the global incubator of innovation—particularly as Beijing imposes strict restrictions on what AI can say and do. The U.S. should compete with China to spread affordable AI technology around the world without compromising on its ethics or free market values.
A full video of the event is available below.
