We left off the last part with arguments for why industry has become the place for major leaps in AI, though with several notable exceptions, both historical and ongoing. In this part, we will consider the counter points that make it attractive for doing AI security work in academic lanes and bylanes. Doubtless, a best-of-both-worlds […]
Tag: security
AI Security Work Is Best Done In Academia or Industry? (1/2)
A question that has been asked in our circles for a few years is what is the best place to do AI research, academia or industry. An insightful Science article from 2023 by Neil Thompson and colleagues at MIT shed light on part of this question in their article “The growing influence of industry in […]
The Gift that Keeps on Giving to Apple and Google
That gift is the mobile app stores, respectively, the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store [I will use the lower case letters “app stores” to refer to the generic portals, while capital case refers to the specific one from Apple.]. They generate revenue for the duopoly of Google and Apple through the fee […]
Short Take: EVM: An Unheralded Technology Powering Democracy
EVMs or Electronic Voting Machines are not much in the news. But quietly, this technology is enabling world’s democracies to elect their leaders in an efficient and secure manner. This includes prominently in India, proudly world’s largest democracy, which completed its multi-round election spread over 6 weeks earlier this summer, an election that reached out […]
A Walled Apple Garden: A Technologist’s Perspective
Apple has been in the news due to the lawsuit by the US Department of Justice alleging monopolistic practices in its smartphone business, and the surrounding ecosystem of App Store and others. Apple has rebutted saying its walled garden is loved by its users for its ease of use and it ensures the security of […]
ChatGPT Helps or Hurts our Cyber Security?
From the coverage that ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, has been receiving since its launch in November 2022, you would be forgiven for thinking that is the only technology story around. And it deserves the spotlight. Few had expected the jaw-dropping rapid strides that this technology has made in the last few years, and it will […]
Three algorithms to live by: LSTM, FedAverage, C-W
Citation We come across many algorithms in our education and work. Here I look at three relatively recent ones from the area of Machine Learning (ML), and more specifically from my vantage point of reliability and security of ML. There have been reams written on each, at various levels of technical depth. So obviously I […]
Big Data and Security: Oxymoron?
Citation Big data technologies have dramatically changed the world we live in, and in double quick time. And you know that unless you have been living under a Martian rock. We take it for granted in many of our daily interactions — in our personal lives as well as at work. Big data technologies fuel […]
Predictive AI for Reliability and Security
Citation In the computer systems field, we use AI, or its more trendy cousin, Machine Learning for predictive reliability and security all the time. This means we take action in anticipation of failure of a computer system to make sure it continues to function reliably and securely. The question is does this translate beyond the […]
The Internet of Insecure Things
Citation We are moving into a world of internet connected things. This is the world where your aging grandmother’s medicine cabinet reminds her when her medication has become due, when the irregular heart beat of your father triggers the scheduling of a cardio checkup, and when the home automation device decides that lowering the temperature […]
Distant Whispers from an Academic Engineer's World 