In 2023, Generative AI has become a mass phenomenon, with more people using the technology in all industries and at all levels of responsibility. In McKinsey Research’s “The State of AI in 2023: The Breakthrough Year of Generative AIâ€, 79% of respondents said they have witnessed the use of generative AI both at work and outside, and 22% said they use it regularly in their work. While adoption and investment in generative artificial intelligence are growing, McKinsey’s report found that many organizations are not addressing the potential risks associated with the use of the technology, with just under a third of respondents saying they have taken steps to reduce the use of advanced artificial intelligence technologies to mitigate cybersecurity risks.
In 2024, generative AI is expected to play an even more important role in businesses and society, according to recent studies, its adoption is expected to grow exponentially, with a 30% increase predicted across industries. As intelligent systems powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning become more entrenched in our daily lives, the cybersecurity landscape is poised to face new challenges and innovations. In sharing these predictions, Vectra Ai experts highlighted aspects that all security teams, CISOs (Chief Information Security Officers), and SOC (Security Operation Center) managers should keep in mind for the new year.
Oliver Tavakoli, Chief Technology Officer, predicts that generative AI will reduce the effectiveness of email security. “Furthermore, the use of generative artificial intelligence in social engineering attacks will serve to demonstrate that current lines of defense are inadequate.
As a result, I predict that organizations will move to ‘next-door’ security approaches such as Zero Trust, micro-segmentation, and detection and response mechanisms.â€
Policy Implications: The Role of AI in Elections and Information Integrity
Sohrob Kazerounian, an AI researcher, believes that generative AI will affect electoral distrust and disinformation ahead of the 2024 election. “The wide availability of generative AI models and their relative ease of use will have far-reaching effects as the United States faces an important election. Disinformation on a large scale with quality content (eg audio and video of falsified candidates, mass fake news masquerading as news, etc.) will be easier than ever, and failure to trust our senses could lead to mistrust and paranoia, further damaging social and political relations between people.
New AI trends, LLMs are declining, deep fakes are increasing
Christian Borst, CTO for EMEA, believes that the widespread use of LLMs (Large Language Models) will decline while deep fakes will increase. “After an initial wave of enthusiasm this year, many organizations are exploring new ways to use large language models. But if you dig beneath the surface, it’s clear that the novelty factor soon wears off. LLMs are generally quite difficult to use because they are unable to understand the context or provide reliable results, and consequently their wider practical use is limited.
Therefore, next year we will see companies reducing the use of LLM and waiting for these tools to become more functional and easier to useâ€. “Cyber ​​threat actors will face the same challenges when using LLM, so we are unlikely to see many complex activities such as AI generating malicious code. However, we can expect cybercriminals to use Generative AI to create more realistic and sophisticated deep fakes. That way, they’ll have a better chance of tricking users into providing sensitive data or clicking on something malicious with more convincing audio or visual phishing lures.â€
The regulatory scenario: the balance between AI innovation and control
When it comes to generative AI – and AI more generally – regulation and policy will play an important role in 2024. According to Hitesh Sheth, CEO of Vectra Ai, the future of AI will depend on regulatory decisions. “I predict that in 2024 we will see huge advances in AI regulation and policy.” Sohrob Kazerounian, an AI researcher, agrees, predicting that the ethical, legal, and political dilemmas of AI will be the subject of much controversy. “The ethical, legal, and socio-political issues surrounding AI will only become more pressing. Given the general political paralysis in the United States, strong regulatory and legal frameworks to regulate AI are unlikely to emerge as quickly as needed. And the number of lawsuits over copyrighted material used to train generative AI models will grow.â€
In conclusion, there is no doubt that generative artificial intelligence will significantly change the cyber security landscape, Verta Ai specialists believe. It has the potential to improve security tools, improve threat intelligence, and transform security operations centers to stay one step ahead of attackers.
