7/1/2009
Written by
University of Illinois computer science professor Eyal Amir recently penned an article for Forbes.com’s Artificial Intelligence report regarding the relationship between AI and security.
In an article titled "We Want More From Computers, But Not Too Much", Amir, an expert in human-level AI with a focus on combining knowledge, reasoning, learning and decision making, discusses the potential implications to online security through improvements in AI.
Amir explains:
“Identifying what is hard for computers and easy for humans is important for a surprising combination of conflicting reasons: We want computers to be better so that they can help us, but we also want computers to be limited so that we are able to differentiate them from humans…
The inability to connect applications such as computer vision or natural-language processing with knowledge about the everyday world is a fundamental open problem for AI researchers. It is about creating computers that have both reasoning power and access to large databases, such that computers themselves can perform the desired task.
Finding better tests for distinguishing computers from humans is critical for effective computer security. Such tests are essential protections against attacks on the Internet, such as identity theft. But we have to be careful: If we develop stronger AI applications, especially those that draw on general knowledge the same way humans do, we will endanger Internet security. The challenge faced by AI researchers on the one hand and computer security researchers on the other is to defuse this conflict, or else one of the two groups will face failure.
View the complete article at: http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/18/computers-online-security-opinions-contributors-artificial-intelligence-09-eyal-amir.html