SSN News Poll reveals not-so-transparent future of AI

YARMOUTH, Maine – The path forward for the development of artificial intelligence (AI) seems clear and inevitable, but the destination may not be as we dive into the results of this month’s news poll.

For the December news poll SSN asked readers to give their input on developing trends and practices for AI. In our first question we asked readers whether corporations can be trusted to engage in transparent AI usage in a safe and ethical manner. Readers uniformly answered that AI cannot be judged using traditional methodology and therefore cannot be managed or held to traditional standards.

In our next news poll question, we noted that many organizations are pushing for the use of generative AI in their operations in everything from chat bots to streamlining high-level administrative tasks and asked if potential risks should be assessed first. Once again, the response from readers was unanimous that caution should be the primary concern where anything with AI is concerned.

“AI should be used very carefully, and it shouldn't be looked at as a way to replace people in their jobs, but instead should be used to enhance people and make us more efficient at our jobs,” one reader wrote. “Lastly, we should keep all AI regulated and controlled, because we don't want the Terminator Scenario in the future.”

However, readers could not agree when it came to the results of the third question. Discussing that AI is being developed as both a defense against cybercrimes and a weapon, the development of more secure algorithms is also reducing the burden on security teams. As widespread adoption and access to AI will also mean lowering the bar of entry to potential threats, we asked readers if security can hope to keep up with threat actors.

Answers were evenly split across all three potential responses. 33% said that, yes, AI provides a boost to traditional security that will enhance preparedness. 33% said that no, hackers and criminal groups will easily outpace and overwhelm security teams. The remaining 33% said that things will remain mostly the same as now, with different tools.

That’s it for this month’s news poll. Stay tuned for our next entry as we examine some of the topics and products coming out of ISC East.