Archimedes’ Lever – AI And The Age Of Infinite Leverage
I have three things to talk about with you today: Cyber-security, Artificial Intelligence, and the point at which those two forces come together. Pretty simple. I titled my talk Archimedes’ Lever. Among many things that Archimedes gave us, including Pi – the number, not the dessert – he is credited with my favorite quote about AI. This guy was way ahead of the curve. He said: “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to placeit, and I shall move the world.”This quote is all about leverage. How much can one individual accomplish with the right tool? It turns out, an awful lot. AI is leverage. AI is near infinite leverage, in fact. Now this can work for you, and it can work against you. We will touch on both today. Which brings us to cybersecurity. Cybersecurity is protection from unwanted attacks. We do not live in digital palaces, however. Higher, thicker walls — or their digital equivalent — are not the answer. Most attacks happen at the human computer interface — where you and I engage with the systems that help each of us to operate.
To protect against such attacks, we started asking for something that you know. A password, the name of your first grade teacher, the make of your first car, etc. When that defense broke down, we started asking for something that you have. An authenticator app or device, a text message to your phone, etc. Our solution, in short, has been to add weight to the user experience to weigh down the human computer interface with more work, assuming that our adversaries are too lazy or slow to do the work. And we are all caught in the crossfire. Artificial intelligence. AI. When you hear these terms, assume it is marketing as much as it is technology. AI is any attempt to use software and machines to simulate or augment human mental capabilities. It is a term that encompasses many different pieces of technology.
Among its relative superpowers, AI is really good at pattern recognition. It can identify patterns in large sets of data, text, or images that you and I would struggle to consume in a lifetime. Even assuming we could, it’s debatable whether we would find the same patterns that an AI can. Ai is also very good at the inverse of pattern recognition identifying anomalies, or items that do not belong. For anyone that ever read Highlights magazine as a kid, I would beat every single one of us at ‘Which of these things is not like the other.’
AI is wicked fast, both in its development pace and its current responsiveness to user questions. Having an effective security posture is about knowing where to focus your efforts. What are the real threats, and what are the actions that you can take now? This is especially important now, in a world where AI can be used by adversaries as infinite leverage to take advantage of your attack surface.
In the same vein, at Atypical we invest in plausible science fiction — points where technology has finally caught up to solve foundational problems. We have looked at a lot of cybersecurity companies, and we’ve only made a few investments to date. One of those is focused on identity, a foundational problem. It is not about what you know, or what you have; rather it’s about who you are. They use behavioral biometrics literally the way in which you interact with systems – and AI to continuously authenticate that you are who you say you are, and that someone else is not pretending to be you.
Another is focused on trust infrastructure for payments or knowing precisely who you are paying before your wire transfer lands where it shouldn’t. They use advanced AI to defend against AI in the wrong hands, including against the use of deep fakes.
Remember, AI is leverage. AI is near infinite leverage. It is important to remember that your adversaries will use this leverage against you, and you can use the same leverage to battle back.
To read the complete Family Wealth Report Family Office Cybersecurity and AI Post-Summit Report 2024 click here