AI: Doomsday vs. A Very Bad Day with Dr. Robert Blumofe

After a data breach, many criminals are beginning to use deep
learning AI to categorize the information they have stolen.
They’re using a steady amount of micro attacks on individuals and
businesses and not just full-scale assaults.


Today’s guest is Robert Blumofe. Bobby joined Akamai in 1999 to
lead the company’s first performance team. While serving as one
of Akamai’s chief architects, he was instrumental in the design
and development of their intelligent edge platform which now
handles trillions of internet requests daily. Bobby’s technical
past lends itself to a passion in machine learning and AI and he
holds a PhD in Computer Science from MIT.
Show Notes:

[1:02] - Bobby shares his background and current role at
Akamai.

[2:32] - When he joined the company in 1999, he didn’t really
know what Akamai did.

[4:29] - Customers recognized that Akamai could have the
capabilities to see all the traffic to their websites and
potentially block attacks.

[7:02] - Machine learning is really remarkable. Akamai has
been using deep learning as a tool to solve problems for their
security products.

[9:25] - AI has become a big part of everything we do.

[10:35] - The quantity and quality of the data used by AI is
what differentiates the machine learning and models of an
enterprise.

[12:36] - Bobby discusses what the next five years could look
like for cyber criminals.

[15:24] - Criminals only need one success out of thousands or
millions of targets.

[17:32] - Social media platforms really do want to do the
right thing but there’s only so much they can do.

[18:39] - As a consumer, you have to be on guard and not
necessarily trust where information is coming from.

[20:42] - Any new significant development in technology is
hard to differentiate from magic, especially in the early days of
development.

[23:04] - Machine learning is remarkable and as a
technologist, Bobby wants to love it. But there are so many
examples of misuse.

[25:29] - Use the technology, but check the output.

[29:10] - When solving a simple problem, does the AI really
need to know everything? They access so much data that isn’t
useful.

[31:19] - Just because an entity can carry on a conversation,
doesn’t mean it has authoritative knowledge.

[33:04] - What is zero trust?

[34:51] - A misconception is that AI will take over and plan
like sci-fi movies.

[39:11] - You need to have all the checks and balances in
critical areas.

[42:07] - Leadership in organizations needs to prioritize
efforts and be very involved.

[44:52] - We need to assume that AI will continue to develop
and criminals will continue misusing the technology in new ways.

[47:23] - The changes and advances have been so fast
recently, that we may need the opportunity to pause.



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