Arun Malik Engineering notes on AI agents, distributed systems, and software architecture. https://blog.arunmalik.dev/ 2026-07-13T00:00:00Z Arun Malik The Amplification Thesis https://blog.arunmalik.dev/series/ai-amplifier/01-amplification-thesis/ 2026-07-13T00:00:00Z Across 28 studies and 8,214 participants, human-plus-AI teams outperform humans alone and AI alone. An animated scrollytelling case for designing AI to amplify people rather than replace them, and why that choice compounds into a competitive moat. Part 1 of the AI as Human Amplifier series. AI Comes for the Grunt Work, Not the Judgment https://blog.arunmalik.dev/posts/ai-comes-for-the-grunt-work/ 2026-07-06T00:00:00Z If AI writes the code, what's left for the developer? The accountant already lived this when the computer arrived. The role was reshaped rather than erased, then it moved up the org chart via the Jevons paradox. An interactive scrollytelling essay, with a very possible AI bubble in between. Why Human-in-the-Loop is Not Optional for Production AI Agents https://blog.arunmalik.dev/series/strategic-hitl/00-why-not-optional/ 2026-07-01T00:00:00Z The six-pillar argument for why HITL is not a transitional compromise but a structural requirement of any production AI system. Decentralized Granular Access Control for Agentic AI Systems in Critical Infrastructure https://blog.arunmalik.dev/posts/decentralized-access-control/ 2026-06-14T00:00:00Z A decentralized, multi-layered access control architecture for agentic AI in critical cloud infrastructure. The Case for Human-in-the-Loop in Production AI Agent Systems: A Six-Pillar Framework https://blog.arunmalik.dev/posts/hitl-six-pillar-framework/ 2026-06-14T00:00:00Z Drawing on 53 research papers, this paper argues that HITL is a structural requirement of any production AI system. From Reactive to Autonomous: Evolution of AI Operations in Cloud Network Infrastructure https://blog.arunmalik.dev/posts/reactive-to-autonomous/ 2026-06-14T00:00:00Z A five-generation maturity model tracing the evolution from manual troubleshooting to fully autonomous incident resolution. Autonomous Incident Resolution at Hyperscale: An Agentic AI Architecture for Network Operations https://blog.arunmalik.dev/posts/autonomous-incident-resolution/ 2026-06-12T00:00:00Z A multi-agent orchestration framework for autonomous network incident resolution with safety guarantees at cloud scale. MCP vs CLI: A Comparative Analysis of AI Agent Tooling Interfaces https://blog.arunmalik.dev/posts/mcp-vs-cli/ 2026-06-01T00:00:00Z CLI and MCP are not competing standards. They are complementary transport layers. Evaluates both across 14 dimensions. Zero Trust in Azure: Strategies for Securing Cloud Infrastructure https://blog.arunmalik.dev/posts/zero-trust-azure/ 2026-04-19T00:00:00Z Seven practical strategies for implementing Zero Trust security in Azure, covering NSGs, Private Links, Azure Policies, AVNM, and shift-left practices.