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SUMMARY:Cells and Claws: A Mental Model for Autonomous AI Agents - Marinus
  van Aswegen
DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20260725T144000
DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20260725T145500
DTSTAMP:20260726T032024Z
UID:pretalx-bsides-joburg-2026-SCMAG7@pretalx.com
DESCRIPTION:"AI agent" has become a catch-all term that hides more than it
  reveals\, and builders\, defenders\, and testers are making decisions on 
 top of incomplete mental models. This talk builds one from first principle
 s: starting with the base LLM and climbing seven generations to the Claw\,
  an autonomous digital agent operating with persistent identity\, tools\, 
 and goals. We then contrast the Claw with the most successful autonomous a
 gent we know\, the biological cell\, and find a shared code/data problem\,
  a shared hijack pattern (adenovirus vs. prompt injection)\, and one criti
 cal gap: the Claw has no immune system. Attendees leave with a working men
 tal model of AI agents\, a reasoning tool\, not a checklist that drives be
 tter decisions on design\, control selection\, surveillance\, and response
 .
LOCATION:Track 1
URL:https://pretalx.com/bsides-joburg-2026/talk/SCMAG7/
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