Why distilled AI models are the new frontline for enterprise security risk

By Ben Mudie, Field CTO at Tenable APJ

The AI gold rush has produced a frantic secondary market of distilled AI models. These smaller, faster, and more efficient versions of LLM giants are gaining massive traction, but they arrive with a warning label. Industry leaders like Anthropic and OpenAI have already sounded the alarm, noting that the safety layers in these “distilled” versions are often dangerously thin. For many organisations, these models are “paper castles” that are impressive in stature but structurally incapable of weathering a modern threat landscape.

These risks typically infiltrate an organisation through two distinct cracks in the floorboards. The first is “Shadow AI,” where employees adopt unauthorised tools to boost productivity without a second thought for the security implications. The second is vendor haste, where businesses, paralysed by the fear of falling behind, choose AI partners based on speed and cost while relegating ...