Seattle is poised to be an epicenter for machine learning and artificial intelligence. That's one takeaway from the inaugural Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence Summit hosted by Madrona Venture Group on Wednesday in downtown Seattle. Thanks to Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and a wide range of startups, the Emerald City is already known as a hub for cloud computing technology development, with Madrona Managing Director Matt McIllwain calling Seattle the "cloud capital of the world" more than two years ago. There is also a long list of Silicon Valley tech companies who have established engineering outposts in the Seattle area, including Google, Facebook, Oracle, Apple, HP, Uber, Lyft, Twitter, Splunk, and many others. But looking beyond the infrastructure and services side of cloud computing, there is also momentum building from both tech giants and small startups in Seattle that are developing technologies related to machine learning, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, algorithms, data analytics, and more.

WIRE)--Cylance, the American company that is revolutionizing cybersecurity through the use of artificial intelligence to proactively prevent advanced persistent threats and malware, announced that it has signed an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement with MOTEX to integrate MOTEX LanScope, a leading endpoint systems management solution, and CylancePROTECT, Cylance's innovative artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning based endpoint malware prevention product. Cylance has produced the world's most advanced malware detection and attack prevention technology, which is protecting hundreds of global organizations and millions of computers today. Draper Nexus Ventures, a leading US-Japan cross border investment firm, is helping Cylance accelerate its entry into the Japanese market. "It's a global phenomenon that traditional security cannot protect endpoints from advanced threats. The Japanese market is not an exception and we have identified a great opportunity there," said Hiro Rio Maeda, managing director for Draper Nexus.

In this article, we take a look at the growing use of artificial intelligence in cyber security as security professionals try to stay a step ahead of the constant barrage of threats and cyber-attacks. Evolving technologies and the growing numbers of "always on", "always connected" devices, tools and commodities are giving the instigators of cyber-threats increased opportunities for access and interference. With statistics suggesting that assaults on individuals, corporations, and government bodies account for almost 400 billion in lost revenue annually, and some 90% of companies admitting to having been victim to some kind of attack – figures that translate to 18 individuals per second being affected by cyber-crime – countering these threats is a real and ongoing concern, for enterprises. Security personnel are finding themselves overwhelmed by the multiplicity of attack vectors and tools available to the cyber-criminals, and are increasingly looking to a new ally, in the quest for cyber security: AI. AI is a sub-division of computer science dealing with the development of systems and software capable of acting intelligently, and doing things that would normally be done by people – equally as well, or sometimes better.

It is no secret that much of the wisdom of the world lies in unstructured data, that is the kind that is not necessarily quantifiable and tidy. So it is in cybersecurity, and now IBM is putting Watson to work to make that knowledge more accessible. Towards that end, IBM Security has announced a new year-long research project through which it will collaborate with eight universities to help train its Watson artificial-intelligence system to tackle cybercrime. Knowledge about threats is often hidden in unstructured sources such as blogs, research reports and documentation, said Kevin Skapinetz, director of strategy for IBM Security. "Let's say tomorrow there's an article about a new type of malware, then a bunch of follow-up blogs," Skapinetz explained.

IBM Security announced Watson for Cyber Security on Tuesday, a cloud-based version of the company's cognitive technology that will focus on learning the language of cybersecurity. The project is working to improve security analysts' capabilities by automating the "connections between data, emerging threats and remediation strategies." IBM will collaborate with eight universities starting this fall to expand the collection of security data IBM has trained Watson with. With its Watson cybersecurity effort, IBM is working to automate threat intelligence, allowing a machine to make connections in data that humans are sometimes unable to find. As an added bonus, if the project proves successful, businesses could integrate Watson's cybersecurity into their security platforms, helping to bridge the cybersecurity skills gap. "Even if the industry was able to fill the estimated 1.5 million open cybersecurity jobs by 2020, we'd still have a skills crisis in security," said Marc van Zadelhoff, General Manager, IBM Security.

These hugely powerful tools, used, developed and backed by the world's most advanced technology companies, are now available to anyone with the skills to use them. Whilst these announcements haven't quite drawn the media attention of an iPhone launch, their significance and reach may be far greater. The point is this: Using these toolkits, individually or combined, anyone can integrate transformational AI or machine learning platforms – which are as sophisticated as anything currently on the market – to their business on a pay as you go or free basis. So what does that mean? It means that any task currently performed by a costly black box AI platform; identifying where to drill for oil, predicting disease outbreaks, optimising scientific experiments to develop new products, predictive maintenance can now be done in-house for the price of a data scientist's salary or consultancy fee, using these open platforms, without losing any control or oversight of your data.

Computing giant IBM has always had big plans for its brainy thinking computer named Watson. Since Watson beat human players at the TV game show "Jeopardy" in 2011, the company has given Watson a varied series of job assignments: Cancer researcher, fitness coach, customer service rep. It has even learned Japanese, designed dresses and provided the brain for a talking toy dinosaur. Now Big Blue says it will train Watson to fight cybercrime. The company says its security division will team up with a group of eight universities to teach the cloud-based computer, programmed to learn subjects in a manner similar to the human brain, on the complicated subject of cyber security.

IBM's Watson supercomputer hardly needs any more resumé-padding. It's already won Jeopardy, written a cookbook, and dabbled in revolutionizing healthcare. Today, IBM announced that Watson is taking its cognitive learning chops to the cloud, where it'll apply them to analyzing, identifying, and (hopefully) preventing cybersecurity threats. But first, it's going to have to learn. There are already plenty of computer-enhanced approaches to combating cybercrime, most of which involve identifying outliers or abnormalities--like when a user logs a few too many failed password attempts--and determining whether those constitute some sort of threat.

It's no secret that much of the wisdom of the world lies in unstructured data, or the kind that's not necessarily quantifiable and tidy. So it is in cybersecurity, and now IBM is putting Watson to work to make that knowledge more accessible. Towards that end, IBM Security on Tuesday announced a new year-long research project through which it will collaborate with eight universities to help train its Watson artificial intelligence system to tackle cybercrime. Knowledge about threats is often hidden in unstructured sources such as blogs, research reports and documentation, said Kevin Skapinetz, director of strategy for IBM Security. "Let's say tomorrow there's an article about a new type of malware, then a bunch of follow-up blogs," Skapinetz explained.

The world of cyber security is becoming increasingly more difficult for businesses looking to protect their assets. Attacks are becoming more sophisticated, with cyber criminals making use of ever advancing technologies. Even with modern machine driven security systems, it is becoming increasingly complex for businesses to differentiate between a genuine visitor and criminals attempting to breach or bring down their systems. With news that MIT has developed Artificial Intelligence (AI) capable of detecting 85% of cyber attacks - and still learning - does the future of cyber security lie with robots? Built by MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the machine-learning startup PatternEx, this artificial intelligence platform known as AI2 will spark an interesting debate about the role of AI in protecting an organization from cyber attacks.