Jordan Wiens on AI, Offense vs. Defense, and the Dying CTF Pipeline

From Three Buddy Problem by Security Conversations

May 24, 2026 · 44 min

About this episode

Jordan Wiens discusses the development of Binary Ninja and the implications of AI in cybersecurity.

( Presented by TLPBLACK : A cybersecurity intelligence platform focused on sharing curated, high-sensitivity threat insights and research with trusted security professionals. ) Three Buddy Problem x Ekoparty Miami : Jordan Wiens, co-founder of Vector 35 and creator of Binary Ninja, talks about a decade spent building a decompiler in a market everyone told him not to enter. He walks through why accessibility drove the whole project, how Binja's intermediate-language system stacks up against IDA, Ghidra, and Radare, and why language-specific decompilation for Rust, C++, and Go is the next real frontier. Plus, thoughts on AI disruption and why "the model can do it" misses the point that the model is just driving the tool, what verifiability really means, whether AI tilts the field toward offense or defense, and questions around subsidized tokens, the collapse of the CTF talent pipeline, and what happens to a craft when the shortcut is always one prompt away. Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade , Ryan Naraine and Jordan Wiens . Timestamps: 0:00 Introductory banter 1:22 Vector 35 and the origin of Binary Ninja 2:32 From CTFs and SCIFs to building a decompiler 3:27 Before Ghidra: when an…

People in this episode

Hosts: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine

Guest: Jordan Wiens

Topics covered

AI disruption
decompilation
cybersecurity
CTF talent pipeline
Binary Ninja
Vector 35

Keywords

Binary Ninja
AI
decompiler
CTF
cybersecurity
Rust
C++
Go

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Vector 35, Binary Ninja, IDA, Ghidra, Radare, DARPA, In-Q-Tel

Products: AI, CTF, Rust, Go