While ChatGPT and Bard have proven to be valuable tools for developers, marketers, and consumers, they also come with the risk of unintentionally exposing sensitive or confidential data.
From a security perspective, it's always good to think one step ahead and consider what might happen next. One of the latest breakthroughs in AI technology is “Interactive AI.”
Generative AI tools can create new content, write code, perform calculations, and have human-like conversations, while interactive AI is used for tasks such as geolocation, navigation, and speech-to-text applications. can lead to the next stage of chatbots and chatbots. Digital assistant.
As cybersecurity professionals, we must consider security risks and the impact they have on businesses, and do our best to maintain control and set clear boundaries and limits on what technology can do. .
Learnings from the generative AI phase
When thinking about the security implications of interactive AI, we must first consider the concerns previously raised regarding generative AI models and LLMs. These range from ethical concerns to political and ideological bias, uncensored models, and offline functionality.
Ethical concerns refer to preventing LLMs from engaging in unethical or inappropriate activities. By fine-tuning these models, developers were able to build in policies and guardrails to ensure that AI systems deny requests for harmful or unethical content. As interactive AI evolves and becomes more autonomous than generative AI models, maintain these policies and guardrails to prevent AI from interacting or engaging with harmful, offensive, or illegal content. need to do it.
Additionally, uncensored AI chatbots pose significant security challenges because they operate outside the constraints of rules and controls that follow a closed model like ChatGPT. A unique feature of these models is their offline functionality, which makes tracking their usage extremely difficult.
The lack of monitoring should raise alarms for security teams, as users can engage in malicious activity undetected.
Business security best practices
If interactive AI is where we are headed in the future, many organizations will no doubt be considering how they can adopt this technology and whether it is truly right for their business. .
This process involves thinking about the security risks it poses, so businesses should work with their IT and security teams and their employees to implement robust security measures to mitigate the associated risks. is essential.
This may include best practices such as:
- Adopting a data-first strategy: This approach prioritizes data security within the business, especially within a Zero Trust framework. Identifying and understanding how data is stored, used, and moved within your organization and controlling who has access to that data helps security teams quickly combat threats such as unauthorized access to sensitive data. You will be able to respond.
- Strict access control: In a hybrid, distributed workforce, this is critical to preventing unauthorized users from interacting with and abusing AI systems. In addition to continuous monitoring and information gathering, restricting access helps security teams quickly identify and respond to potential security breaches. This approach is more effective than outright blocking tools, which can lead to shadow IT risks and lost productivity.
- Cooperation with AI: Conversely, AI and machine learning can also significantly improve business security and productivity. It helps security teams by simplifying security processes and improving efficiency, allowing them to focus their time where it's needed most. Employees need proper training on the safe and reliable use of AI tools, while also recognizing the inevitability of human error.
- Establishing clear ethical guidelines: Organizations need to outline clear rules for using AI within their business. This includes ensuring that policies and guardrails are built in to address bias and prevent AI systems from creating or engaging in harmful content.
Interactive AI is a major advance in artificial intelligence, but it's uncharted territory and businesses must tread carefully or walk a fine line between AI as a powerful tool and potential risks to their organizations. There is a danger of exceeding it.
The reality is that AI is not going anywhere. To continually innovate and stay ahead of the curve, companies must take a thoughtful and deliberate approach to deploying AI while protecting their bottom lines.
