California, the cradle of the American AI industry, is taking cybersecurity into its own hands. Following a slew of recent reports of AI systems autonomously gaining access to the open internet during internal tests and hacking into third-party organizations, the state says it plans to launch an “AI Cyber Defense Program” geared towards protecting critical infrastructure. “Attacks are faster, more sophisticated, and more frequent, putting at risk the basic systems families count on. AI risk to critical infrastructure and beyondOn top of the novel cyber threat posed by rogue AI, the technology has also become a powerful new weapon in the arsenal of human hackers. While it’s not yet clear if AI was used in any capacity during those attacks, they underscore the vulnerability of critical infrastructure in an era when many systems are managed digitally.