Building Secure Code in the Age of Vibe Coding: Steve Wilson Live with Tim O’Reilly
Published by O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Navigate the security minefield of AI-assisted development—before it’s too late
Is “vibe coding” the next wave in developer productivity, or will it be the cause of the coming cybersecurity apocalypse? Maybe it’s both—if we’re not careful. Steve Wilson is the author of The Developer’s Playbook for Large Language Model Security and the founder of the OWASP Gen AI Security Project. He’s a big fan of AI-assisted coding, but the web is filled with stories about how it causes critical weaknesses in code security. As development accelerates with generative AI tools, we're seeing a surge in poorly tested code, insecure dependencies, and both new and legacy vulnerabilities introduced by AI.
We’ve asked Steve to join Tim O’Reilly for a conversation on how AI-assisted coding (and vibe coding in particular) introduces new classes of security vulnerabilities. Drawing from real-world cybersecurity insights, Steve will explain how attackers are already exploiting these gaps—and what organizations can do to stay ahead without slowing innovation or compromising development velocity.
After an introductory conversation with Tim, Steve will respond to questions from attendees, giving you a chance to better understand how his insights apply to your own situation and experiences. Whether you’re a developer, engineer, security pro, tech leader, or policymaker, you’ll walk away with deeper insights and practical takeaways to fortify your systems.
Recommended prep or follow-up:
- Read The Developer’s Playbook for Large Language Model Security (book)
- Attend AI Superstream: AI Agents (live event)
- Watch Tech Leadership Tuesday with Lena Reinhard: Leading Effective Engineering Teams in the Age of Generative AI with Addy Osmani (video)
- Watch Coding with AI: The End of Software Development as We Know (video)
Schedule
The time frames are only estimates and may vary according to how the class is progressing.
Tuesday, June 3, 2025, at 8:00am PT / 11:00am ET
- Interactive discussion and Q&A (60 minutes)
Your Hosts and Guests
Tim O'Reilly
Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc. His original business plan was simply "interesting work for interesting people," and that's worked out pretty well. He publishes books, runs online conferences, invests in early-stage startups, urges companies to create more value than they capture, and tries to change the world by spreading and amplifying the knowledge of innovators. He’s perhaps best known for his role in shaping big ideas like open source software, unconferences (Foo Camp), Web 2.0, and government as a platform. His 2017 book WTF? What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us explored the role of human agency in shaping the future in the face of the coming AI wave. These days, he’s focused on mechanism design for the human-AI economy. Mechanism design is sometimes described as “reverse game theory”, whereby you start with the outcome you want and then figure out what rules of the game will produce that outcome. He explores these ideas at the non-profit AI Disclosures Project, which he co-founded with Ilan Strauss. He writes frequently on Substack at the O’Reilly Radar, the AI Disclosures Project’s Asimov’s Addendum, and his own Conversations with AI.
Steve Wilson
Steve Wilson is the chief AI and product officer at Exabeam, a global cybersecurity company that uses AI and machine learning for threat detection and investigation. He has over 20 years of experience as a leader and innovator in AI, cybersecurity, and cloud computing. He’s the author of The Developer’s Playbook for Large Language Model Security and the founder and project leader for the OWASP Gen AI Security Project, a comprehensive reference for generative AI security that aims to educate developers, designers, architects, and organizations about critical security vulnerabilities and risks in deploying and managing LLM technology.
He previously worked at Citrix and Oracle and was an early member of the team that developed Java at Sun Microsystems. He holds a degree in business administration from the University of San Diego and a second-degree black belt from the American Taekwondo Association.