The Emperor's New Clothes AI Redux
Hans Christian Andersen is Smiling from his Grave
The Emperor’s New Clothes is a classic tale that was published in 18371. Hans Christian Andersen is smiling from his grave (sorry boys and girls, he died in 1875. Don’t tell The Little Mermaid). Not a lot has changed in the last 187 or so years, apparently.
We’re suffering the same syndrome again with Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI in general. Everyone is a cheerleader and no one is naked. I don’t see a lot of discussion of the many interesting issues, although we’re starting to get more (my tiny contribution is here and others are emerging).
I don’t think AI is going away and many businesses are rushing to define how they will capitalize on it or how they will profit from it. We as cybersecurity folks need to be the child in the story, both in general and for AI projects in particular. It’s important that we raise the issues, even over the hype of the rest of the world.
For me, this also highlights why diverse, open security teams are absolutely necessary. I’d much rather have someone on my team tell me I’m wrong or raise issues I hadn’t thought of, than to make a fool of myself in front of the world at large.
If you are in the cybersecurity field, consider The Emperor and be the child when it is called for.