Aspen Digital

In the face of growing cyber threats, how can AI be used to increase the cyber defenses of the world’s democracies?

VS: We’ve examined this question at both the micro and macro level. You need to tackle both to defend democratic societies and their institutions.

At the micro level, organizations must stay true to cybersecurity principles and not be swept up in the hype of deploying AI without good reason. AI can never be a complete substitute for human thinking and human judgment. Having a human in the loop – ALWAYS – is a core principle. We examine these questions in two papers: Navigating Uncharted Waters: Generative AI Guidance for Organizations and Envisioning Cyber Futures with AI, which we developed based on insights from our Aspen US and Global Cybersecurity Groups. In short, organizations must provide clear guidance for their employees about AI usage and set out a clear governance structure for how data will be used by any AI models.

At the macro – or societal – level, our AI and Democracy work examines how expanding AI capabilities make it easier for bad actors to mislead citizens and the steps we can take to neutralize targeted local voter suppression, language-based influence operations, and deepfakes.

HA: Our AI Cyber Defense Initiative outlines how AI can be used to tip the security scales in favor of the professionals tasked with protecting our infrastructure and the critical software we depend upon every day. AI can help today’s defenders in scaling their work in threat detection, malware analysis, vulnerability detection, vulnerability fixing and incident response. We also outline a proposed policy and technology agenda that can help to secure AI, encourage a balanced regulatory approach to AI usage and adoption, and advance research.