Dark Side of the Boom: How Scammers Hijacked the AI Revolution by Patrick Coughlin. Hands down, this is one of the absolute must-reads of 2026.
Patrick holds a BS from Georgetown University, and MBA from Stanford University. He is Co-Founder & CEO of Savi Security and previously worked at Cisco and Splunk in Senior Vice President roles.
Make no mistake, the weaponization of artificial intelligence is well underway. This book is a wake up call addressing how adversaries are simply exploiting the AI gold rush. Many of the stories shared have been known across the cybersecurity community. Patrick wraps them all together to tell a very compelling story.
This is simply a must-read for leaders in every field. Don’t stop there, hand it over to your parents and kids, too. Think they’re safe? Think again. The amount of fraud is staggering.
With artificial intelligence it’s no longer a copy and paste email blast. Their AI phishing campaigns will be even more difficult to catch since the dark web is filled with real stolen data fragments. AI driven digital personas now make fraudulent accounts nearly impossible for traditional banking algorithms to spot. Your parents and children will never see it coming.
AI has driven an unprecedented surge in fraud.
Perhaps the most concerning for every day consumers is how adversaries need only a few seconds of scraped audio to mimic family members or corporate executives in convincing distress calls. Adversaries can easily prompt large language models to eliminate the traditional red flags of poor grammar and awkward sentences. And they can leverage a compromised email server to send a custom phishing email to each user at any organization. It’s no longer a copy/past email blast.
Their work will be even more difficult to catch since the dark web is filled with real stolen data fragments. AI driven digital personas now make fraudulent accounts nearly impossible for traditional banking algorithms to spot.
Society will simply remain mesmerized by the intoxicating promise and hype of artificial intelligence, while our adversaries are quietly weaponizing the very same technology on an unprecedented scale. Patrick reveals how everyday families, small business owners, and Fortune 100 financial teams have fallen victim to tactics so realistic that conventional caution is ineffective. However, Patrick offers crucial strategies to combat these modern AI threats, equipping readers with the hope and knowledge to survive.
In conclusion, Dark Side of the Boom is a definitive must-read and a guaranteed contender for book of the year. Remember, ignorance is bliss until the bill comes due.