Businesses fear AI cyber threats

October 23, 2023

Reading time: 5 minutes  

Today we will discuss-

  • 😀EU to address AI Act's key challenges

  • 😷FTC warns of rise in AI-powered imposter scams

  • 😥Irish firms fear AI-driven cyber threats

  • 😱9 amazing AI tools you might not have heard of

All this and more - Let's dive in!

👩‍🍳What’s cooking in the newsroom?

EU looks for political agreement on AI Act’s key issues

☕News - With the fifth round of talks around the EU AI Act set for this week, MEP Dragoș Tudorache, former Chair of the EP's Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence in the Digital Age, highlighted that there are three major issues that are still unresolved.

The upcoming discussions involving the European Parliament, European Council, and member states are aimed at addressing these challenges and achieving political consensus.

🤔What are these major issues? The first issue revolves around the EU Council's request for exemptions in the use of AI technology for national security. While the European Parliament is pushing for a complete ban on the use of facial recognition systems in public places, the EU Council is seeking exemptions for law enforcement purposes.

The second issue centers around regulating foundational AI models such as ChatGPT and Bard. This is important because when the Council set its mandate last year, Gen AI technologies such as ChatGPT weren't very popular and the focus remained on general purpose AI. Hence, setting requirements and restrictions for such AI is necessary.

The final issue concerns governance and enforcement matters such as the level and severity of fines.

FTC warns public of nationwide surge in imposter scams that use AI voice replication

🤖News - The United States’ Federal Trade Commission has declared that imposter scams, which use AI to replicate the voice of a loved one, are currently the most frequently reported scams in the nation.

🤯But how are they able to do so? According to a cybersecurity report by digital security firm McAfee, 52% of Americans share their voice online, essentially providing scammers with what they need. This combined with the abilities of Gen AI technologies makes it extremely easy for scammers to create fake voice recordings and trick people.

🤨What is the FTC doing to address this? For starters, the FTC has advised people to use a code with loved ones to verify their identity in such situations and contact them using another method in case of doubts.

The agency has also actively been monitoring the use of AI to ensure compliance with antitrust and consumer protection laws. In August, the agency identified such an operation and imposed a $300M fine.

Additionally, they have made it clear that laws governing the improper collection or use of personal data will apply to the data used to train AI models.

Over 50% of Irish businesses are concerned about Gen AI being used to advance cyber attacks: Survey

👨‍💻News - According to a recent survey, over 50% of Irish businesses believe that Generative AI will result in significant cyber attacks within the coming year.

The survey, conducted by PwC, involved 4,000 business and tech leaders across 71 countries, including Ireland. Its main focus was understanding how AI technology is changing the security landscape.

🕵️‍♂️What were the key findings?

  • The survey found that among the participating countries, Irish companies are the most worried about AI-driven cyber threats like third-party breaches, ransomware, and email scams.

  • It also found that 58% of Irish respondents are planning to use Gen AI tools to strengthen their cyber defense, and 69% intend to increase their organization's 2024 cybersecurity budget.

  • However, more than half of Irish businesses admitted that they did not fully understand the cyber risks associated with AI technologies.

🧐How is Gen AI increasing cyber risks though? The threat from generative AI programs such as ChatGPT comes from their ability to create malicious software, resulting in increasingly advanced and harmful cyberattacks. Here, malicious software means computer programs or code that include viruses, spyware, or other types of damaging software.

👩🏼‍💻What else is happening?

👩‍🏫Interesting facts

  • Sophia, a robot that looks and acts like a human, was granted citizenship in Saudi Arabia. This has sparked a debate about whether or not robots should have the same rights as humans.

  • AI can diagnose medical conditions with the same accuracy as top medical experts. One such example is Google's AI algorithm "LYNA" that can detect metastatic breast cancer with a 99% accuracy rate.

  • In 2020, researchers at Cornell University developed a self-healing robot that could detect and repair damage to its own body. The robot was made of a soft, flexible material that was embedded with sensors.

👩🏼‍🚒Discover mind-blowing AI tools

  1. Ramp - A financial management platform that helps businesses streamline their financial operations

  2. Techpresso - A daily news service that provides a summary of the latest tech news from various sources

  3. Page Canary - An AI-powered QA tester for websites that helps users identify issues with their websites

  4. QR Diffusion - An AI-powered platform that transforms ordinary QR codes into stunning artwork

  5. Elite AI Writer - An AI-powered tool that assists in creating SEO-optimized and plagiarism-free content for various purposes

  6. Giftl.io - An AI-powered tool that generates tailored gift ideas based on the recipient's personality

  7. Uizard - An AI-powered UI design tool that helps users design wireframes, prototypes, and mockups quickly

  8. Tripbot - A tool that helps users plan their trips easily and efficiently

  9. Langley AI - An AI language learning platform that offers personalized language learning assistance

💥Mythbuster

Myth - AI algorithms can process any data

Fact - The myth that AI algorithms can process any data is simply not true. AI algorithms are trained on specific datasets, and they can only process data that is similar to the data they were trained on. For example, an AI algorithm that was trained on a dataset of text documents will not be able to process images or audio files.

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