If it helps I understand the second much better and feels less clickbaity and includes more info. I do agree with the points you made about the confusion although I find frontier a term used in this area a lot, “frontier AI models have” would probably resolve that.
If the title simply said "AI is out-performing humans at CTF" then none of this confusion exists. Nothing is "broken," we don't need to be superfluous with "frontier," and the point is still there.
But the article is arguing it is broken. That’s the point. You can disagree but that’s very much that the author is writing about, not a curiosity, and that it’s these top models that are not custom security models.
It's like "Forklifts outperform humans in weightlifting". The problem, of course, is that a forklift is much easier to spot among athletes than an AI among CTF players.
CTF competitions and leaderboards are broken. Major competitions have stopped. Top competitors have dropped out.
Imo frontier is too niche and specific, if you know what a frontier model means then it's fine, but if you don't then it's negative/detrimental to the title.
"new" does the same thing and is probably just a better descriptor then frontier
if you are on HN and have no idea what "frontier model" would mean maybe it's time you found out.
I also misread the updated title.
"Frontier models break the open CTF format" is good
"Frontier AI..." means wtf is Frontier AI.
Because of course it exists (just googled it): https://frontierai.company/
But then you're not acting as a billboard promoting AI. Isn't that partly the point?