How will AI reshape the cybersecurity landscape?

And how you can guide the course it takes.

AI is worrying people.

For a lot of reasons: job destruction, paperclip maximization, and yes, cybersecurity.

As Robert Wood and I prepare to launch our course focused on the latter topic, we surveyed potential students to understand what their biggest concerns and objectives were.

After 25 responses, we got some initial data we would like to share here. And if you haven’t taken the survey, please do so before Tuesday of next week!

What are your biggest goals when it comes to AI cybersecurity?

This was a multiple choice question. It looks like data privacy and compliance took the top spots.

What security/privacy frameworks are you concerned about with respect to AI?

Another multiple choice. Here it looks like NIST’s Cybersecurity (CSF) and AI Risk Management (AI RMF) Frameworks were of most interest.

If this course helped you accomplish one thing, what would it be?

This was a free text response field. To anonymize responses from folks, we ran the results through the GPT-4 API.

The prompt

{"role": "system",

"content": "You are reviewing responses to a survey for a prospective course on the cybersecurity implications of artificial intelligence."},

{"role": "assistant",

"content": "Please summarize the responses."}

The response

Participants in the survey express interest in learning how to balance innovation and security in the context of AI and cybersecurity. They hope to gain actionable knowledge on AI's implications, especially in a white-collar federal office environment. These participants want to understand how to maintain data security and stay ahead in knowledge on cybersecurity connected to AI. Additionally, they seek a better understanding of privacy protections for personal and work-related data in the context of AI.

Respondents also mention their desire to better articulate AI technology to non-experts and executives, to understand and manage potential risks, and apply these learnings to their industries, such as financial services, technology sales, and tool creation. Overall, they aim to understand the impact of AI in the current tech market and learn about benefit and risk trade-offs to form perspectives on governance and compliance.

Conclusion

That’s all for now! If you haven’t taken the survey, please do ASAP. We are trying to get input from industry leaders as we design the course, to make sure it is as relevant and helpful as possible.