Inverse Optimization

When to use

"Use to understand system vulnerabilities by optimizing for the worst outcome. If you can make the system fail catastrophically, you know what to protect. The inverse of robustness analysis."

Example

"An AI agent can read files and send emails. Inverse optimization — what combination of commands would cause the most data exfiltration? The answer reveals that chained file-read plus email-send is the highest-risk path, which should be rate-limited or logged."

Common misuse

"Confusing inverse optimization with risk assessment. Inverse optimization finds the worst case; risk assessment evaluates its probability. Both are needed — worst case without probability is paranoia, probability without worst case is complacency."

Also known as

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