By: Milton Bertrand

STEM proponent a fellow Geazler

Geazle.com STEM Platform

It is evident that scientists, technologists, engineers, mathematicians (STEMers) are constantly working to create new innovations to transform and shape the way society lives. The latest frontier in such quest is cyber science and artificial intelligence. The puzzling, or vexing question what is the future of cyber science and artificial intelligence (AI)?

These STEMers have taken great strides that cross many industries like health care, manufacturing enterprises, financial institutions just to name a few. Cyber science is the new emerging interdisciplinary field as its primary goal is to help us become better cyber-citizens who help, rather than hinder, security efforts by raising awareness of the benefits and dangers of cyberspace.  This new field exposes us to the history of cyberspace, ethical and social issues, computer programming, and need for and use of security in cyberspace. Due to the pervasive nature of cyberspace in our daily affairs, we must be further educated in both the benefits and dangers of using cyberspace applications. In a nutshell, AI is a machine or computer that simulates human intelligence independently of human input.

While AI seems to be a great tool that has broad functions across many industries, AI raises many ethical questions. AI is based on deep learning algorithms; An algorithm is a set of instructions, designed to perform a computation or solve a group of problems. It is also simply a set of guidelines that describe how to perform a task; AI is already ubiquitous in our lives despite the fact that many of us are not aware of it. Google autocompletes our search results. Amazon suggests similar products in our shopping cart. Facebook displays us ads based on our likes.  This innovation, which is dubbed AI is only as good as the data it is given in training. Humans choose data to be used for training an AI program. Because humans are inherently biased, it is prudent to monitor the further development of AI closely to minimize the risk of biases against some groups in society.

As the present, the focus on the positive implications of AI is more so than the ethical questions or the potential biases such technology face. While nothing ever goes wrong with a positive outlook, it is essential to balance the negative potential of AI. The future of AI is paramount. The negative side of AI is that it could increase the potential threats to many industries. It can allow attackers to gain access to extended electronic devices with even more accuracy than ever before. Consequently, cyber-attacks are likely to give rise to personal data thefts, network penetrations, and an epidemic-level spread of intelligent computer viruses.

In all, that could create major problems for cyber security as bad actors will find new ways to use AI to bypass current security measures and expand on many current attacks like spear phishing (spear phishing is an email or some sort of electronic message scheme intended to deceive a specific individual, organization). Furthermore, STEMers and cyber security companies should work together to mitigate the risks and facilitate safety when facing AI attacks create fears in society. It is evident that AI will be a central feature in the future. It becomes more of a pressing matter to focus on cyber science. While there is not a one size fit all solution, it is imperative that any new technology is handled with prudence. It is inevitable that there will always be bad actors who want to exploit a new system for their own benefits and advantages. AI is no exception of such. Ironically, it is to use AI to defend against malicious threats. Cyber science is the best defense against malicious purposes from this point onward. Therefore, one must identify possible risks and stay in the loop and up to day with new innovations.

About Milton Bertrand:
Milton is a STEM advocate and a fellow Geazler. His passion for STEM fields extends way back to his early childhood when his curiosity led him to reverse engineer his toys and tinker with many types of experiments. Currently, Milton is working on the stimulation of STEM to raise awareness regarding the importance of these disciplines.