Podcast host John Koetsier sat down for an interview with Cujo AI VP Marcio Avillez to discuss the problem of smart device and IoT security and what we can do about it using AI technologies. Can AI help prevent distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and improve smart home security? The company recently inked a deal with Comcast to shield almost 20 million households from malware and spyware -- and perhaps just as importantly, to protect the rest of the internet from insecure IoT devices on those homes' local networks. By using machine learning on huge amounts of network data to build a graph of normal device traffic and tracking anomalies that could indicate hackers recruiting smart devices for botnets or other nefarious purposes. "We're seeing IP cameras, network-attached storage, devices that have a little bit more CPU, a little bit more memory, that become kind of very useful tools for hackers to do the kinds of things that they want to do," Cujo vice president Marcio Avillez said.

Google recently repitched Duplex to explicitly reveal to restaurant hosts and salon staff that they are speaking with the Google Assistant and are being recorded. Google omitted this small but important detail when it first introduced Duplex at its I/O developer conference in May. A media backlash ensued, and critics renewed old fears about the implications of unleashing AI agents that can impersonate the behavior of humans in indistinguishable ways. By tweaking Duplex, Google puts to rest some of that criticism. But why is it so important that companies be transparent about the identity of their AI agents?