Hackers
topic on 11 shows · 10 statements across 10 episodes · said 2 times in 2 episodes since 2017
the Y Combinator Startup Podcast 1 
TBPN 1 
Founders 
Innovators & Investors 
We Live to Build 
the Neon Show 
No Priors 
A Product Market Fit Show 
Catalyst 
the a16z Podcast 
20VC
Mentions by year, every show
tap a year for its mentions
the Y Combinator Startup Podcast 1TBPN 1
2025 1 mention in 1 episode
2017 1 mention in 1 episode
every mention on every show, scene by scene, with the transcript →
10 statements about Hackers, every show
Emmons: Hackers Will Continually Bypass AI Guardrails Despite Future Breakthroughs
“We may have, and I would think we'll have big breakthroughs over the coming years that really help curb some of this, but there's still going to be the black and white hat hackers who are going to try to prove that we can get around it just like we have today,…”
Ayrey: Fine-tuning an AI to be the world's top hacker is easy
“So it would be very, very easy to align an AI robot to be probably the most powerful hacker in the world.”
Hackers' primary goal is remaining camouflaged before breaching energy systems
“You know, the number one focus for these hackers are to, are for them to blend in, for them to be camouflaged to avoid them being identified before they get entry into systems.”
Hanslovan: Cyber defenders only need attackers to make a single mistake
“Even though like the mantra in 2015, when we started the company, it was like, hackers only have to be right once. Defenders have to be right always. And I thought about that inverse and I was like, wait, hackers only have to be wrong once for a defender to su…”
Graham: Programmers should discover software design iteratively while coding
“You should figure out programs as you're writing them, just as writers and painters and architects do.”
Masad: The right hacker mindset is just-in-time learning around AI
“I think embedded in their answer is this attitude of like, if it becomes a problem, I will learn it, right? If the AI can't do it, I will learn it. And I think that's the right attitude for hackers is that you learn just in time to be able to do that task.”
Guo: Nation states and hackers will use AI tools for malicious code
“If you can do code generation, you can do malicious code generation, right? And just like other nation states and hackers are going to use every other tool out there. If they write code, they're going to write code with AI tooling.”
Rocha: Hackers actively embed malicious code into open-source software libraries
“The biggest problem is a lot of people embed open source code in their projects. It's a known problem that hackers contribute actively to, or may try to contribute actively to open source and then embed that code.”
Sasi: Non-state hackers sell stolen data rather than directly exploit it
“The people who hack it don't directly use it, unless you are a government entity. The other hackers, what they do is they put that data for sale, So that someone else is actually utilizing it.”
Zetter: Security improvements force hackers to retool rather than stopping them
“What changes is in some of these hacks is that we get a little smarter with security, and so the hackers have to go back and retool their techniques. But they do come back again. They come back with new techniques and new methods and new tools just to achieve …”