Willy Wonka, AI and Cybersecurity: The Majority of People in Survey Thought That AI Will Eventually Destroy Us
Presenting in my 2nd favouriate place on the planet
Yesterday, for the second year running, I was so honoured to do an end-note talk at the FutureScot Cybersecurity conference in Glasgow:
I outlined the way that AI and machine learning are transforming so many areas of our lives — possibly for the better, and likely for the worse. As an academic, I believe in presenting both sides of an argument and letting others make their own decisions. So, it was warts and all, and where cybersecurity will likely be one of the areas that will be most disrupted, especially as our adversaries turn to AI methods.
And, so I opened with HAL not letting Dave back into the space ship, but went onto Willy Wonka, in order to illustrate how AI can paint an amazing picture of our lives, but where we can end up being disappointed with the actual results.
In Glasgow, over the weekend, there was an “amazing” Willy Wonka event for families. Here is the promotion:
And this is what it ended up with:
Please excuse me here, but I think this perhaps shows a world of AI versus reality. The promise and the delivery. Overall, the promotion graphics were produced by DALLE-2, and which generates images from text. We will also see the release of Sona soon — which will give us text-to-video.
This video is produced from the prompt of, “: 3D animation of a small, round, fluffy creature with big, expressive eyes explores a vibrant, enchanted forest. The creature, a whimsical blend of a rabbit and a squirrel, has soft blue fur and a bushy, striped tail. It hops along a sparkling stream, its eyes wide with wonder. The forest is alive with magical elements: flowers that glow and change colors, trees with leaves in shades of purple and silver, and small floating lights that resemble fireflies. The creature stops to interact playfully with a group of tiny, fairy-like beings dancing around a mushroom ring. The creature looks up in awe at a large, glowing tree that seems to be the heart of the forest.”.
And, so, I thought I would use DALLE-2 to produce the key frame images:
But my favouriate graphic was:
It was all a bit of fun. But, AI is serious and has serious implications for our society. It could replace many of our existing jobs, and turn us into slaves to the machine. In the worst case, AI could terminate us from the planet:
Imagine how a medical robot, originally programmed to rid cancer, could conclude that the best way to obliterate cancer is to exterminate humans who are genetically prone to the disease.” — Nick Bilton, tech columnist wrote in the New York Times
Overall, AI will impinge on cybersecurity in so many ways, including:
and:
It is perhaps bring us a woke culture:
And new ways for cybercriminals to operate:
And, as part of the talk, I also did a background survey, and where are the results:
Conclusions
Six of the top seven companies for capitalisation are tech companies. In fact, NVIDIA increased its worth in a single day more than the total value of Coca-Cola and the Bank of America.
Our world will never be the same again. AI is perhaps the most disruptive technology that humankind has ever created, and the next few years will be a completely transformative time for us, as many jobs will disappear. My tip is to become an expert in your field, as AI will struggle to compete with true intelligence. Deep and true knowledge and expertise will trump any AI, but surface knowledge will eventually fall to the might of the Memex.
