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AI Finds 70% of Smart Contract Exploits | Alpin Yukseloglu

1h 2min

AI is rapidly transforming smart contract security, with models like GPT 5.3 Codex now able to exploit over 70% of critical vulnerabilities, a dramatic increase from less than 20% in six months. While this presents short-term risks from malicious actors, guest Alpin Yukseloglu argues that the long-term outlook is extremely bullish for crypto, as AI-driven security improvements could lead to a highly hardened and resilient financial system. The EVM Bench benchmark, co-authored by Yukseloglu, highlights crypto's unique verifiability, making it an ideal domain for rapid AI development in security and beyond.

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✨ Key Takeaways

1

AI's Rapid Progress in Smart Contract Exploits

AI models have dramatically improved, going from detecting less than 20% of critical smart contract bugs to over 70% in just six months, as demonstrated by the EVM Bench, showcasing crypto's unique suitability for AI training due to its verifiability.
2

Long-term Bullish Outlook for Crypto Security

Despite short-term risks, AI is expected to lead to 'perfect security' for smart contracts, significantly increasing the 'carrying capacity' and resilience of the crypto industry by hardening financial systems against exploits.
3

Agency as a Defense Against Singularity Anxiety

Guest Alpin Yukseloglu emphasizes that maintaining a sense of agency and actively engaging with the frontier of AI development is crucial for navigating the uncertainties of superintelligence, rather than succumbing to 'doomer' or 'accelerationist' mindsets.
4

Vulnerable Contracts and Future Capabilities

Small-cap, low-TVL protocols on long-tail chains are most at risk from AI-driven exploits due to the lower cost of AI inference. Future AI advancements are expected in areas like mechanism design, MEV, and protocol-layer security.

💬 Notable Quotes

"In the long term, it's now increasingly clear that AI is going to be extremely, extremely good for crypto because especially on the security front because we're going to get to a world where because everything is much more secure, the ceiling on the industry is much higher."
"If the agent tells you that it found a bug, it literally has a proof of concept that it can exploit against, it can run against a production grade EVM environment and drain money from a contract."
"The core point is agency... if you believe that you have agency over the outcome, then somehow like you're still in control."