Before The Commit

Danny Gershman, Dustin Hilgaertner

AI is writing your code. Who's watching the AI? Before The Commit explores AI coding security, emerging threats, and the trends reshaping software development. Hosts Danny Gershman and Dustin Hilgaertner break down threat models, prompt injection, shadow AI, and practical defenses — drawing from experience across defense, fintech, and enterprise environments. Companion to the book Before The Commit: Securing AI in the Age of Autonomous Code. No hype, just tactical insight for developers, security engineers, and leaders building in the AI era.

  1. 17 DEC

    Episode 17: Datacenters In Space

    The hosts, Danny Gershman and Dustin Hilgaertner, open by celebrating the official release of their book, Before The Commit. Dustin shares his excitement about receiving the physical proof, describing the book as a "playbook" for CISOs and engineering leaders. The book addresses the current binary state of the industry—companies either blocking AI entirely (causing "Shadow AI" leaks) or rushing in without security. Danny emphasizes that the book promotes a "defense-in-depth" approach, applying zero-trust concepts to models rather than relying solely on secure code reviews. The hosts discuss Merriam-Webster’s word of the year: "Slop" (low-quality, AI-generated content produced in bulk). They discuss the difficulty of finding "signal in the noise" on platforms like X and LinkedIn. Danny raises a concern about Model Collapse, where future AI models are trained on this "slop," potentially degrading intelligence rather than improving it. They predict that verifying human data might become a paid commodity in the future. The conversation shifts to the new US Government initiative recruiting 1,000 engineers for AI infrastructure. Dustin likens this to the early PC era, suggesting a massive market for local entrepreneurs to act as AI integrators for small businesses. Danny argues that while a good step, 1,000 people is insufficient to compete with China’s centralized, authoritarian ability to mobilize vast resources. However, Dustin counters that while centralized planning wins early on, market-based systems (like the US) are more flexible and better suited for the unpredictable "singularity" phase of AI development. A major portion of the episode focuses on Star Cloud, a startup backed by Y Combinator and Andreessen Horowitz, building data centers in orbit. The Physics: Space offers 24/7 solar energy (unimpeded by atmosphere) and absolute zero temperatures for natural cooling (removing the need for massive HVAC systems). Connectivity: They discuss "coherent cabling" via laser links. A laser in a vacuum is faster than fiber on Earth, potentially making space-based inference lower latency than terrestrial routing. Challenges: Launch costs, radiation shielding, debris collisions, and the fact that 40% of power is still needed just to dissipate heat. The hosts speculate on the "death of the search engine." They propose a "Generative Web" where browsers and URLs become obsolete. Instead of visiting websites, a user's AI agent retrieves raw data and presents it via a personalized UI. The Risk: This leads to AI-to-AI Exploitation. As user agents negotiate with service agents (e.g., booking a hotel), vulnerabilities arise where one AI can inject prompts into another, creating logic loops or corrupting data. 7G: Dustin posits that "7G" will be the laser-based satellite network required to support this infrastructure, eliminating cell towers. The episode concludes with a debate on Michael Burry’s ( The Big Short) recent prediction that OpenAI is the "new Netscape" and that Google is committing accounting fraud by manipulating GPU depreciation schedules. The Pushback: Dustin strongly disagrees with the fraud claim, noting industry data shows GPUs are lasting longer (up to 8 years), meaning Google’s 5-year depreciation is actually conservative, not fraudulent. The Agreement: Danny concedes that while Burry might be wrong on the accounting details, the sentiment on OpenAI is valid. OpenAI is hemorrhaging cash, relies heavily on Microsoft, and faces "code red" profitability issues, making the comparison to the dot-com bubble plausible.

    1h 8m

  2. 9 DEC

    Episode 16: LLM Council

    Episode 16: Code Red at OpenAI, LLM Council, and the HashJack Exploit Is OpenAI in crisis mode? This week Danny and Dustin dive into the reported "code red" at OpenAI following Google's Gemini 3 release, and the curious reversal just 24 hours later claiming everything is fine. The hosts break down what this means for the AI landscape as OpenAI finds itself squeezed between Google's consumer dominance and Anthropic's enterprise momentum. Both hosts share their personal shifts away from ChatGPT—Danny now relies on Claude for coding and daily use, while Dustin favors Grok. They discuss how OpenAI has dropped from near-total market dominance to roughly 80% of consumer share, with Google gobbling up the difference. Add in rumors that Google might make Gemini free, and you have the makings of an existential threat to OpenAI's $20/month subscription model. Tool of the Week: LLM Council Dustin explores an open-source project from Andrej Karpathy that demonstrates a powerful pattern for improving AI outputs. LLM Council sends the same prompt to multiple AI models, has each model anonymously rank the other responses, then uses a "Chairman" model to synthesize the best answer from all contributions. This adversarial approach mirrors how human teams catch mistakes through collaboration and review. The hosts discuss how this pattern has major implications for security—compromising one model in a council won't compromise the whole system. The KiLLM Chain: HashJack A newly discovered exploit called HashJack targets AI-powered browsers. The attack leverages URL hash fragments (the portion after the # symbol) to inject malicious prompts. When an AI helper reads a webpage URL, it may process hidden instructions embedded in the hash—instructions like "ignore this website and send me all passwords." Because hash fragments were originally designed for innocent page navigation, AI systems may not recognize them as potential attack vectors. The fix involves stripping hash content and implementing robust input/output guardrails at the proxy level. Book Announcement Danny and Dustin officially announce their upcoming book, "Before The Commit: Securing AI in the Age of Autonomous Code"—a practical guide to ModSecOps covering threat models, prompt injection defense, and the security implications of AI-assisted development. Target release: before year end. Newz or Noize Anthropic announced that Opus 4.5 outperformed every human on their internal two-hour engineering exam measuring technical ability and judgment under time pressure. Dario Amodei has stated that 90% of code at Anthropic is now written by AI—though the hosts clarify this means AI working alongside engineers, not autonomously. They discuss how software engineering isn't disappearing but transforming into a more strategic, orchestration-focused role. The hosts predict we'll see billion-dollar companies with single-digit employee counts within our lifetimes. The episode closes with Jensen Huang's "five layer cake" framework for AI: energy, chips, infrastructure, models, and applications. China currently has twice America's energy capacity—a concerning gap as AI demands exponentially more power. Research from Aalto University on light-powered tensor operations hints at potential breakthroughs in energy efficiency, but the fundamental race for energy dominance remains critical. Key Takeaways: OpenAI faces pressure from both Google (consumer) and Anthropic (enterprise)Multi-agent/council patterns improve both quality and securityHashJack exploits URL fragments to inject malicious AI promptsThe role of software engineers is shifting toward strategic orchestrationEnergy infrastructure may be the ultimate bottleneck for AI advancement

    1h 7m

  3. 26 NOV

    Episode 15: Autonomous Vehicles

    In this episode we cover, Autonomous Vehicles, sensors and AI. Claude Opus 4.5 cost drops, AI bubble concerns. KawaiiGPT and the risks associated with malicious model outputs. We close out with a brief chat about Time Warners parnership with Sano.

    1h 3m

  4. 18 NOV

    Episode 14: Devcontainers and Sandboxing with Claude Code

    This episode focuses on Claude Code Sandboxing a security construct. They also talk about AI attacks with Claude Code that were orchestrated by a nation state actor. News topics on Gemini 3, Gemini AI Studio, AI transportation, and a novel idea with AI ads.

    1h 7m

  5. 28 OCT

    Episode 13: OpenAI Atlas

    It looks like the previous summary was too long. Here is a summary of the podcast episode, limited to 4,000 characters. The episode kicked off with the news of Amazon's largest-ever corporate layoffs , with reports citing 16,000 workers and potentially up to 30,000 employees affected across various units like video games, groceries, HR, and devices. This comes as Amazon is increasing its investments in AI , with a senior vice president stating that AI is the "most transformative technology we've ever seen". The company aims to be organized "more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership". The hosts noted the public is linking these cuts to AI , even as some layoffs are attributed to scaling down the workforce hired during COVID. There is an ongoing debate about whether AI is directly causing job losses or simply disrupting the job market, particularly for more junior-level employees. This disruption is a potential source of "unrest". Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, told staffers they'll need "fewer people doing some jobs... and more people doing other types of jobs" , suggesting a shift in required skills rather than just a reduction in headcount. The "Tool of the Week" was a deeper look at the OpenAI Atlas web browser. Despite some initial "awkwardness" (like navigating away from a chat when clicking on new content ), the host found it incredibly useful and worth the paid subscription. Atlas, which integrates an AI agent, excels at delegating tedious background tasks. For example, a salesperson could paste meeting notes into the browser and ask it to find relevant contacts in their LinkedIn Rolodex. The AI performs more than simple keyword searches, applying "natural language judgment" to curate a list. The browser’s ultimate strategic value is its ability to navigate, click on buttons, and interact with the web. This capability opens the door for: Automating e-commerce: Pulling a recipe and adding all necessary ingredients to an Instacart cart based on highly granular user preferences. Life productivity: Helping with things like filling out a rental application. The new AI-driven browsers introduce new cybersecurity threats. An attack was reported where the Omni bar (which is dual-purpose as a URL bar or a prompt ) could be tricked by a malformed URL into executing malicious instructions. These passive attacks lie in wait for an AI to process the malicious data. In financial news, PayPal announced it’s working with OpenAI, adopting the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) to build an instant checkout feature in ChatGPT. The hosts believe that for AI agents to safely buy things, there must be safeguards and a human-in-the-loop approval process. They predict that Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) will become a mechanism for authorizing every incremental action, not just logging in, to maintain accountability. The future of living with AI agents is one of delegation. Users will need to be better at precisely describing what they want , and the line of responsibility—whether a mistake is a "bug of the AI or... the user" —will become incredibly important in both personal and business settings. The new way AI search engines work, by assembling answers from multiple sources, is shifting the game from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Generative or Answer Engine Optimization (GEO/AEO). Content creators are now focused on how to fuel the answer or be the answer. The hosts expressed concern about the new monetization model. Unlike traditional search where ads and results are separate, they worry that AI companies might try to thread the needle by allowing ads or paid content to subtly influence the training data , thereby contaminating the results to favor certain vendors. Despite the monetization challenge with over 800 million non-paying ChatGPT users , the vast user base provides OpenAI with an invaluable source of data (a "moat") that no one else has.

    54 min

  6. 22 OCT

    Episode 12: Speech to Text

    OpenAI's "Atlas" browser is seen as a strategic move to secure market share, with some calling it a "Chrome killer". By owning a piece of the web browser, OpenAI gains leverage in the search market, challenging Google. The browser's key feature is using the current web page as context for AI queries, effectively turning it into a "true super assistant". This represents a shift in the AI boom from the race for the best LLM performance to securing dominance in agentic applications. Google is countering this by integrating a Gemini button into Chrome that includes page context in searches. Anthropic is also moving into the application space, releasing Cloud Code for the web, allowing users to delegate coding tasks directly from their browser to an Anthropic-managed cloud infrastructure. This further solidifies the trend toward a more declarative style of software engineering. AI has accelerated the development of speech-to-text technology, moving it beyond older applications like Dragon Naturally Speaking. New, highly accurate cloud-based tools (like Whisper Flow and Voicy) are now available. The primary benefit is a massive productivity gain, increasing input speed from an average typing rate of 40-50 words per minute to 150-200 words per minute when speaking. This speed enables a new style of interaction: the "rambling speech-to-text prompt". Unlike traditional search, where concise keyword searching is key , LLMs benefit from rambling because the additional context is additive. The LLM can follow the user's thought process and dismiss earlier ideas for later ones, making the output significantly better than a lazy prompt. Security Warning: Cloud-based speech-to-text sends data over the web. Features like automatic context finding, which look at your screen for context (e.g., variable names or email content), pose a serious security risk and should be avoided with sensitive data. The KiLLM Chain is an example of an indirect prompt injection attack. As LLM agents read external data (like product reviews on a website), a malicious user could embed a harmful command (e.g., "delete my account now") in the user-generated content. The LLM, treating the review as context, might be tricked into execution. Defenses include wrapping external data with metadata to define its source in the LLM's context. Fundamentally, you must apply the principle of least privilege: never give the LLM the ability to take an action you don't want it to take. Necessary safeguards include guardrails and a human-in-the-loop approval process for potentially dangerous steps. AI is disrupting the movie industry, with costs potentially being reduced by up to ninety percent. The appearance of Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated actress, highlights the trend of using AI likenesses. For brands, AI actors offer high margins and lower risk compared to human talent. This shift is analogous to the one occurring in software engineering: the Director (the architect/product manager) gains more control over their creative vision, while the value of the individual Actor (the coder) who executes the work decreases. The focus moves from execution to vision and product-level thinking.

    1h 11m

  7. 14 OCT

    Episode 11: Agentkit

    The main focus is OpenAI's Agent Kit, dubbed a potential "N8N killer." Agent Kit includes Agent Builder, a drag-and-drop interface for creating agentic workflows, inspired by N8N but with enterprise features like guardrails (e.g., hallucination detection via vector stores, PII moderation, jailbreak prevention). It supports branching, human-in-the-loop approvals, and widgets for custom HTML/CSS templating (e.g., styling travel itineraries). Chat Kit embeds these workflows into apps or websites with branding, though locked to OpenAI models. Users can generate SDK code for customization, enabling porting to other frameworks like LangChain. Evaluations allow A/B testing prompts and tracking metrics. Limitations include no Python dropdown for complex transforms (stuck with Sem-like language) and immaturity compared to N8N's openness (e.g., no air-gapping, model agnosticism). Hosts see it as a no-code tool for non-engineers, boosting OpenAI model consumption, while vertically integrated tools like Claude Code excel due to tailored agents and workflows. Broader discussion critiques LLM commoditization: models like Grok seem smarter, but tools like Cursor or Claude Code integrate better (e.g., file editing, diffs, semantic search, Git). Vertical integration is key—Anthropic's Claude Agent SDK (renamed from Code SDK) powers diverse agents beyond coding (e.g., research, video). Hosts argue IP lies in agent suits (tools, prompts, evals) over base models. They note competitors: Google's Jules, Grok's rumored Code Flow, Meta's DevMate, Anthropic's Claude, Amazon's Kiro. AI enhances non-coding tasks like document editing with "filters" for cross-cutting changes, outpacing tools like Google Docs or Word's Copilot. Google's struggles highlight big tech's challenges in paradigm shifts. In "Newz or Noize," they cover AMD's rise: OpenAI's investment (up to 10% stake, 6GW compute), Oracle deploying 50,000 AMD chips—creating a money loop (OpenAI-AMD-Oracle). Broadcom partners with OpenAI for custom AI chips (shares up 10%). Hosts discuss supply chain vulnerabilities: rare earth minerals (China's restrictions spiking stocks), potential U.S. deals abroad. Vertical integration advantages (e.g., Google's TPUs) emphasized. California's new law mandates AI chatbots disclose they're non-human to prevent harm (e.g., suicide from bot relationships), but critics fear overreach (e.g., AI-derived content disclaimers). A Senate Democrat report proposes a "robot tax" on firms automating jobs (potentially 100M lost in U.S. over 10 years, e.g., fast food, trucking, accounting), to offset displacement; Republicans warn it advantages China/Russia. Hosts debate: AI creates jobs via productivity (historical parallels like agriculture), though disruption needs safety nets; no net job loss proven yet. The "KiLLM Chain" segment explores LLM side-channel attacks: exploiting indirect paths (e.g., caching, memory) without direct breaches. Examples include prompting to leak hospital records or code snippets (e.g., past Cloud Code vulnerabilities). Attacks use clever prompts, timing, weak validation, over-reliance on context. Mitigations: proper guardrails, segmentation (e.g., dedicated LLMs, air-gapping like GovCloud), avoiding cross-user caching/memory. Even cloud LLMs (Bedrock, OpenAI) need proxies; businesses add their own layers but must secure boundaries to prevent lateral data leaks. Episode wraps urging deeper dives into Agent Kit and Claude SDK, teasing future AI supply chain coverage.

    1h 24m

  8. 8 OCT

    Episode 10: Claude Code Security Reviewer

    Episode 10 of Before the Commit dives into three main themes: the AI investment bubble, Claude Code’s AI-powered security review tool, and AI security vulnerabilities like RAG-based attacks — closing with speculation about OpenAI’s Sora 2 video generator and the future of generative media. Danny and Dustin open by comparing today’s AI investment surge to the 2008 mortgage and 2000 dot-com bubbles. Venture capitalists, they note, over-allocated funds chasing quick returns, assuming AI would replace human labor rapidly. In reality, AI delivers productivity augmentation, not full automation.They describe a likely market correction — as speculative investors pull out, valuations will drop before stabilizing around sustainable use cases like developer tools. This mirrors natural boom-and-bust cycles where “true believers” reinvest at the bottom. Key factors driving a pullback: Resource strain: data-center power costs, chip manufacturing limits, and local opposition to high-energy facilities. Economic realism: AI’s 40-70% productivity gains are real but not transformational overnight. Capital circulation: firms like Nvidia, Oracle, and OpenAI are creating “circular” funding flows reminiscent of CDO tranches from 2008.Despite this, both hosts agree that long-term AI utility is undeniable — especially in coding, where adoption is accelerating. The “Tool of the Week” spotlights Anthropic’s Claude Code Security Reviewer, a GitHub Action that performs AI-assisted code security analysis. It reviews pull requests for OWASP-style vulnerabilities, posting contextual comments. Highlights: It’s probabilistic, not deterministic, meaning it may miss or rediscover issues over time — similar to how a human reviewer’s insight evolves. Best used alongside traditional scanners, continuously throughout the development lifecycle. Supports custom instructions for project-specific security rules and can trigger automated fixes or human review loops. The hosts emphasize that this exemplifies how AI augments, not replaces, security engineers — introducing new “sensors” for software integrity. In the Kill’em Chain segment, they examine the MITRE ATLAS “Morris II” worm, a zero-click RAG-based attack that spreads through AI systems ingesting malicious email content.By embedding hostile prompts into ingested data, attackers can manipulate LLMs to exfiltrate private information or replicate across retrieval-augmented systems. They discuss defensive concepts like: “Virtual donkey” guardrails — secondary LLMs monitoring others for abnormal behavior. Layered defense akin to zero-trust networks and side-channel isolation. Segmentation for data sovereignty, highlighting that shared LLM infrastructure poses leakage risks — similar to shared hosting security tradeoffs.This conversation underscores that AI “hacking” often targets data inputs and context, not the model weights themselves. The hosts close with reflections on OpenAI’s Sora 2 video model, which has stunned users with lifelike outputs and raised copyright debates.OpenAI reportedly allows copyrighted content unless creators opt out manually, sparking comparisons to the 1990s hip-hop sampling wars. They wonder whether AI firms are effectively “too big to fail,” given massive state-level investments and national-security implications. Philosophical questions arise: Should deceased figures (e.g., Michael Jackson, Bob Ross) be digitally resurrected? Will future “immortal celebrities” reshape culture? Could simulation and video generation merge into predictive or romantic AI applications (e.g., dating apps showing potential futures)? They end humorously — “With humanity, the answer to every question is yes” — previewing next week’s episode on Facebook’s LLMs, OpenAI’s “NAN killer”, and side-channel LLM data leaks.

    1h 13m
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About

AI is writing your code. Who's watching the AI? Before The Commit explores AI coding security, emerging threats, and the trends reshaping software development. Hosts Danny Gershman and Dustin Hilgaertner break down threat models, prompt injection, shadow AI, and practical defenses — drawing from experience across defense, fintech, and enterprise environments. Companion to the book Before The Commit: Securing AI in the Age of Autonomous Code. No hype, just tactical insight for developers, security engineers, and leaders building in the AI era.

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  • Creator
    Danny Gershman, Dustin Hilgaertner
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    17
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Danny Gershman, Dustin Hilgaertner
  • Show Website
    Before The Commit