Don’t Say ‘Skynet’ — NSA’s AI Security Center is New Hub for Agency Efforts

Nothing suspicious to see here—move along.

The U.S. National Security Agency is forming a security center for AI. NSA and U.S. Cyber Command honcho Gen. Paul Nakasone (pictured) thinks the NSA has “unique talent and expertise” that should be focused on keeping AI secure.

Specific threats to be addressed include election interference and IP theft. In today’s SB Blogwatch, we’re from the government and we’re here to help.

Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: Don’t you want super freak.

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What’s the craic? Martin Matishak reports—“NSA is creating a hub for AI security”:

“Clear need”
The Artificial Intelligence Security Center will become the spy agency’s “focal point” for AI activities such as “leveraging foreign intelligence insights,” helping to develop best practices guidelines for the fast-developing technology and creating “risk frameworks for AI security,” Army Gen. Paul Nakasone said. … The new entity … consolidat[es] its various artificial intelligence efforts into a new hub [to] help industry “understand the threats against their intellectual property and collaborate to help prevent and eradicate threats.”
…
The NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, which Nakasone also helms, recently finished separate reviews of how they would use artificial intelligence in the future. … One of the findings of the study was a “clear need” to focus on AI security. … Nakasone did not specify who would lead the center or how large it might grow.

Still unclear why? Duncan Riley drives the point home—“New NSA center”:

“Foreign intelligence”
Nakasone provided further details behind the motivation for setting up the center, saying that, “Today, the U.S. leads in this critical area, but this lead should not be taken for granted. … Our adversaries, who have for decades used theft and exploitation of our intellectual property to advance their interests, will seek to co-opt our advances in AI and corrupt our application of it.”
…
The threats from foreign intelligence are real, with the NSA warning on Sept. 27 that an alleged Chinese-linked hacking group is actively targeting and exploiting routers, particularly those from Cisco Systems Inc. The advisory claimed that BlackTech, also known as Palmerworm, Temp.Overboard, Circuit Panda and Radio Panda have demonstrated capabilities in modifying router firmware without detection.

Specifically, though? Benedict Collins will be back—“The road to Skynet”:

“Sinister side”
With U.S. presidential elections to take place in November 2024, there is concern that China and Russia could look to interfere. Nakasone said that a number of elections in allied countries would take place before the U.S. presidential election, and that the NSA would work with them to discourage any interference. [It] could provide a good metric to measure the potential disruption to expect in 2024, while also providing a demonstration of hostile capabilities and how to counter them.
…
AI models can be used for good such as editing videos and creating art, but it also has a more sinister side if abused or modified. With many of the best AI models being developed in the U.S. there is the risk of competitors or hostile actors looking to steal or sabotage AI. This is a particular focus of the new security center, which will work with its allies and private industry to protect and enhance AI security.

What kind of “interference”? efitz notes the obvious one:

The problem with deepfakes is the instant amplification they’ll get from media and well-intentioned responses from people of good faith. So there will be the deepfake of (insert your favorite politician) saying something unsavory and it’ll be taken at face value and a bunch of people will cancel their social media and bank accounts and protest in front of their houses etc., etc.

But gweihir just rolls their eyes:

I think I will skip this one. They probably thought so too until some politicians got involved.

But this is the smart solution: They do a new “center,” hire new people for it and otherwise can completely ignore the current moronic hype.

ikr? AlexZ17 agrees:

AI now is the most used buzzword. … How’s it even going to work? It feels like Bladerunner turning into an Office episode.

However, u/emprahsFury is confused by the whole announcement:

I understand the desire to keep specific capabilities secret, and I understand this was maybe not the event for details. But that presser is almost worthless. Is he talking about deepfakes? Loyal wingmen? A new logistics AI? Skynet? … All of it?
…
American citizens have no need for a reason (or rather, they have every reason) and non-Americans absolutely have a right to know what weapons will be thrown around their homes when the Americans make it a battlefield. Whether either of those overcomes the USG’s need for secrecy I won’t speculate.

What should the NSA be doing? Here’s Iamthecheese’s suggestion:

If I were a three letter agency I would make an LLM which specializes in coding. I would give it a task—for example exploiting … a popular operating system—and let it hack away.
…
A few iterations should provide novel zero day exploits. … Too expensive for most organizations but the NSA has the hardware for it.

Meanwhile, 2devnull thinks the NSA is feeling vulnerable:

The tools are not the threat, the democratization of the tools is. … Hollywood and big brother have been doing propaganda and fake photos since forever.

And Finally:

Human James

Previously in And Finally

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Image sauce: U.S. Army (public domain; leveled and cropped)