Frank Cilluffo

The researchers argue that repository-defined agents, workflow instructions, and test commands should all be treated as untrusted input when AI coding agents work with third-party code.

In an op-ed for CyberScoop, Frank Cilluffo and Nick Sellars of Auburn University's McCrary Institute argue that federal AI leadership should focus on preserving U.S. AI capabilities while ensuring increasingly autonomous systems don't put critical infrastructure at unacceptable risk.

They propose an AI assurance compact built around three principles, capability, control, and continuity.

Their framework calls for independent evaluation of frontier AI systems, enforceable checkpoints when capabilities outpace safeguards, rapid reporting of serious incidents, and stronger guardrails for AI deployed in essential services.