Rolling the Dice on AI SC Media

Fear of successful cyberattacks meets fear of unintended consequences when machine learning is your first line of defense. Fear can be a great motivator. If you are afraid that a human cannot make a decision fast enough to stop a cyberattack, you might opt for an artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning system. But although fear, uncertainty and doubt -- the FUD factor -- of not responding quickly enough might motivate you to take this action, that same FUD factor that the action your automated system takes might be wrong is an equally strong motivator not to employ this technology. Welcome to this year's Catch 22. In the 1983 sci-fi classic War Games, a computer was employed to replace the soldiers who manned the intercontinental ballistic missile silos because, it was believed, the computer could launch the missiles dispassionately and not be swayed by indecision in case of a nuclear attack. A teenager hacked the system thinking it was an unreleased video game.