An investigative journalist receives a video from an anonymous whistleblower. It shows a candidate for president admitting to illegal activity. But is this video real? If so, it would be huge news – the scoop of a lifetime – and could completely turn around the upcoming elections. But the journalist runs the video through a specialized tool, which tells her that the video isn't what it seems.

An investigative journalist receives a video from an anonymous whistleblower. It shows a candidate for president admitting to illegal activity. But is this video real? If so, it would be huge news – the scoop of a lifetime – and could completely turn around the upcoming elections. But the journalist runs the video through a specialized tool, which tells her that the video isn't what it seems.

New technologies can bring more threats to corporate security, but because they increase information technology connectivity and vulnerabilities, they can also be used to fight against these problems. Cybersecurity software maker Imperva Inc. uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to do threat analytics and predictive attack research for its clients. "We are fighting against technologies like AI," said Pam Murphy (pictured), chief executive officer of Imperva. "But we are also using those technologies to help us decide where we need to continue to add capabilities to stop [cyberattacks]." Murphy spoke with Jeff Frick, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media's mobile livestreaming studio, during the RSA Conference in San Francisco.

Increasingly, AI programs reflect a closed loop where privacy goes up against truthfulness. Supposing you were concerned about a new technology, as far as the risks it might pose to individuals and to society. One thing you could do would be to form a committee composed of experts, practitioners of the technology, ethicists, philosophers and like-minded individuals. You might then propose policy and regulation and best practices to minimize harm. Another approach would be to just write computer programs, presuming that your enlightened engineering effort would eliminate harm by making technology do the right thing from the get-go.