Avast Blog_ViewPoints: AI is on our side

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Despite some widespread fears, artificial intelligence can help cybersecurity by blocking fake news and other threats

Headlines about ethical AI and stories about the dangers of artificial intelligence make me wonder if there would have been articles about ethical hammers or the dangers of knives had media and social media existed back when they were invented. Hammers and knives are indeed dangerous, but are also essential tools we cannot imagine living without.

AI is far bigger and broader than any Stone Age tool, inviting comparisons to the harnessing of electricity, or to the internet – technologies that changed practically everything in our society far beyond what could have been predicted. Intelligent algorithms work in more subtle ways, empowering existing systems and creating entirely new ones. Data analysis becomes far more powerful, revealing patterns the human mind could never imagine. Efficiencies and productivity blossom in everything from chip design to weather prediction.

So too do weapons become more powerful, and here I’m not talking about sci-fi robots, or even the real robots in viral videos that are always followed with hundreds of “we’re doomed!” mentions. There’s no reason to believe that our amazing intelligent tech creations will turn against us any more than our hammers and knives, but just like them, they are dangerous in the wrong hands.

Automated cyberattacks have become the norm, and they are increasingly being enhanced with AI tools. Phishing attacks can harvest and assemble personal data from across the internet to compose and send millions of messages. Learning algorithms track which messages have the best results and adjust their tactics for the next round. Automated attacks probe every possible device looking for points of entry, and with billions of new devices coming online every year, many of them with terrible security, the defense badly needs an AI boost as well.

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