Daily Tech Digest - July 29, 2024

Addressing the conundrum of imposter syndrome and LLMs

LLMs, trained on extensive datasets, excel at delivering precise and accurate information across a broad spectrum of topics. The advent of LLMs has undoubtedly been a significant advancement, offering a superior alternative to traditional web browsing and the often tedious process of sifting through multiple sites with incomplete information. This innovation significantly reduces the time required to resolve queries, find answers and move on to subsequent tasks. Furthermore, LLMs serve as excellent sources of inspiration for new, creative projects. Their ability to provide detailed, well-rounded responses makes them invaluable for a variety of tasks, from writing resumes and planning trips to summarizing books and creating digital content. This capability has notably decreased the time needed to iterate on ideas and produce polished outputs. However, this convenience is not without its potential risks. The remarkable capabilities of LLMs can lead to over-reliance, in which we depend on them for even the smallest tasks, such as debugging or writing code, without fully processing the information ourselves.


Enhancing threat detection for GenAI workloads with cloud attack emulation

Detecting threats in GenAI cloud workloads should be a significant concern for most organizations. Although this topic is not heavily discussed, it is a ticking time bomb that might explode only when attacks emerge or if compliance regulations enforce threat detection requirements for GenAI workloads. ... Automatic inventory systems are required to track organizations’ GenAI workloads. This is a critical requirement for threat detection, the basis for security visibility. However, this might be challenging in organizations where security teams are unaware of GenAI adoption. Similarly, only some technical tools can discover and maintain an inventory of GenAI cloud workloads. ... Most cloud threats are not actual vulnerabilities but abuses of existing features, making the detection of malicious behavior challenging. This is also a challenge for rule-based systems since they are not always able to identify intelligently when API calls or log events indicate malicious events. Therefore, event correlation is leveraged to formulate possible events indicating attacks. GenAI has several abuse cases, e.g., prompt injections and training data poisoning. 


Thriving in the AI Era: A 7-Step Playbook For CEOs

Integrating AI into the workplace requires a fundamental shift in how businesses approach employee education and skill development. Leaders must now prioritize lifelong learning and reskilling initiatives to ensure their workforce remains competitive in an AI-driven market. This involves not only technical training but also fostering a culture of continuous learning. By investing in upskilling programs, businesses can equip employees with the proper knowledge and capabilities to work alongside AI technologies. ... The potential risks associated with AI, such as biases, data breaches and misinformation, underscore the urgent need for ethical AI practices. Business leaders must establish robust governance frameworks to ensure that AI technologies are developed and deployed responsibly. This includes implementing standards for fairness, accountability, and transparency in AI systems. ... Maximizing human potential requires creating work environments that facilitate “flow states,” where individuals are fully immersed and engaged in their tasks. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow theory highlights the importance of focused, distraction-free work periods for enhancing performance.


Benefits and Risks of Deploying LLMs as Part of Security Processes

Advanced LLMs hold tremendous promise to reduce the workload of cybersecurity teams and to improve their capabilities. AI-powered coding tools have widely penetrated software development. Github research found that 92% of developers are using or have used AI tools for code suggestion and completion. Most of these “copilot” tools have some security capabilities. Programmatic disciplines with relatively binary outcomes such as coding (code will either pass or fail unit tests) are well suited for LLMs. ... As a new technology with a short track record, LLMs have serious risks. Worse, understanding the full extent of those risks is challenging because LLM outputs are not 100% predictable or programmatic. ... As AI systems become more capable, their information security deployments are expanding rapidly. To be clear, many cybersecurity companies have long used pattern matching and machine learning for dynamic filtering. What is new in the generative AI era are interactive LLMs that provide a layer of intelligence atop existing workflows and pools of data, ideally improving the efficiency and enhancing capabilities of cybersecurity teams. 


NIST releases new tool to check AI models’ security

The guidelines outline voluntary practices developers can adopt while designing and building their model to protect it against being misused to cause deliberate harm to individuals, public safety, and national security. The draft offers seven key approaches for mitigating the risks that models will be misused, along with recommendations on how to implement them and how to be transparent about their implementation. “Together, these practices can help prevent models from enabling harm through activities like developing biological weapons, carrying out offensive cyber operations, and generating child sexual abuse material and nonconsensual intimate imagery,” the NIST said, adding that it was accepting comments on the draft till September 9. ... While the SSDF is broadly concerned with software coding practices, the companion resource expands the SSDF partly to address the issue of a model being compromised with malicious training data that adversely affects the AI system’s performance, it added. As part of the NIST’s plan to ensure AI safety, it has further proposed a separate plan for US stakeholders to work with others around the globe on developing AI standards.


Data Privacy Compliance Is an Opportunity, Not a Burden

Often, businesses face challenges in ensuring that the consent categories set by their consent management platforms (CMPs) are accurately reflected in their data collection processes. This misalignment can result in user event data inappropriately entering downstream tools. With advanced consent enforcement, customers can now effortlessly synchronize their consent categories with their data collection and routing strategies, eliminating the risk of sending user event data where it shouldn’t be. This establishes a robust connection between the CMP and the data collection engine, ensuring that they consistently align and preventing any unintended data leaks or misconfigurations. Moreover, leaders should consider minimizing the data they collect by ensuring it genuinely advances re-targeting efforts. ... Customers are more interested in protecting their data – and more pessimistic about data privacy – than ever. Organizations can capitalize on this sentiment by becoming robust data stewards. Embracing data privacy as an opportunity rather than a burden can lead to improved outcomes, stronger customer relationships, and a competitive advantage in the market. 


The impact of AI on mitigating risks in hiring processes: Combating employee fraud

There are different ways through which AI is transforming the entire hiring process and eliminating fraud. But to begin with, we must comprehend the many forms that candidate fraud manifests. It may take place in multiple ways, such as plain lying on resumes, falsifying credentials, or even identity theft. These may consist of intentional misrepresentations or omissions, such as when an applicant doesn’t disclose his/her history of being involved in a crime. Because of this, companies may suffer significant financial losses, sharp declines in production, or even legal problems as a result. In this case, artificial intelligence can help. ... AI is also capable of probing applicant behaviour throughout the recruiting process. Through the utilisation of facial recognition technology, machine learning algorithms can evaluate interview responses and communication styles. These systems can identify subtle facial expressions to identify indicators of deceit or uneasiness. Additionally, voice analysis can be used to spot odd shifts in speech patterns and tonality, providing important details about a candidate’s authenticity.


Balancing Technology with Personal Touch: The Evolution of Digital Lending

The best way to get someone on your side is to invite them into the battle. We brought in some of our retail partners to provide feedback on how the application looks and feels from their perspective. We also involved loan officers who are part of the application intake experience. They were able to provide quick, immediate feedback on the spot and we were able to make changes based on their input. By involving employees in the process, they felt like their voice was heard and they had a seat at the table. ... This approach to employee engagement in digital transformation aligns with broader trends in change management and organizational psychology. Companies across industries are recognizing that successful digital transformations require not just technological upgrades, but also cultural shifts and employee buy-in. ... As financial institutions continue to navigate the digital transformation of lending processes, the key to success lies in balancing technological innovation with a deep understanding of customer needs and a commitment to employee engagement. By embracing change while maintaining a focus on personalized service, banks like Broadway Bank are well-positioned to thrive in the evolving landscape of digital lending.


The True Cost of a Major Network or Application Failure

When critical communication and collaboration tools falter, the consequences extend far beyond immediate revenue loss. Employees experience downtime, productivity declines, and customers may face disruptions in service, leading to dissatisfaction and potential churn. The negative publicity surrounding major outages can further damage a company's brand reputation, eroding stakeholder trust. ... Common issues like dropped calls, delays in joining meetings, and poor audio/video quality issues affecting only a handful of users may seem minor when viewed individually, but their collective toll can be significant. These issues strain IT resources, create a backlog of tickets, and decrease employee morale and job satisfaction. ... To address the challenges posed by network and application failures, it’s clear organizations must be more proactive in setting up monitoring and incident response strategies. After all, receiving real-time insights into the health and performance of UCaaS and SaaS platforms more generally can enable IT teams to identify and address issues before they escalate. Further, implementing robust incident management protocols and conducting regular performance assessments are crucial to minimizing downtime and maximizing operational efficiency.


Gartner Predicts 30% of Generative AI Projects Will Be Abandoned After Proof of Concept By End of 2025

A major challenge for organizations arises in justifying the substantial investment in GenAI for productivity enhancement, which can be difficult to directly translate into financial benefit, according to Gartner. ... “Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all with GenAI, and costs aren’t as predictable as other technologies,” said Sallam. “What you spend, the use cases you invest in and the deployment approaches you take, all determine the costs. Whether you’re a market disruptor and want to infuse AI everywhere, or you have a more conservative focus on productivity gains or extending existing processes, each has different levels of cost, risk, variability and strategic impact.” ... By analyzing the business value and the total costs of GenAI business model innovation, organizations can establish the direct ROI and future value impact, according to Gartner. This serves as a crucial tool for making informed investment decisions about GenAI business model innovation. If the business outcomes meet or exceed expectations, it presents an opportunity to expand investments by scaling GenAI innovation and usage across a broader user base, or implementing it in additional business divisions,” said Sallam.



Quote for the day:

"The signs of outstanding leadership are found among the followers." -- Max DePree

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