Late Thursday afternoon, suspected North Korean hackers pulled off the largest cryptocurrency heist in history. After breaching a single account at the giant crypto firm Binance and draining $2.5 billion, the hackers compromised 10 other accounts within a 12-minute window.

In all, they stole $6.3 billion, according to Binance.

It could have been worse. A security company called Blockaid, which uses advanced artificial intelligence, says it detected the initial break-in in less than two minutes and, within the hour, had alerted customers to the attack. The hackers did not get away with all the money. Other cryptocurrency companies were able to trace and freeze roughly $3 billion of what the hackers initially took, Binance said.

Welcome to cybersecurity in the age of AI.

Just as assembly lines revolutionized manufacturing, AI is transforming the contest between hackers and cybersecurity firms, allowing both sides to operate faster, on a larger scale, and with less human intervention.…