Artificial intelligence (A.I.) isn't quite ready to take over the world, but it's moving a step closer. A recent survey released by Morning Consult and IBM finds that the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the continuing need to automate manual tasks and cybersecurity, has pushed more organizations to adopt A.I. technologies. The Global AI Adoption Index 2022 report, which is based on questions sent to approximately 7,500 IT leaders across the globe, finds that 35 percent of organizations surveyed are deploying A.I. today; another 42 percent are "exploring" these technologies. The study added that A.I. adoption was up four percentage points compared to a previous report released in 2021. As with many other cutting-edge technologies, the survey found that COVID-19 played a significant role in increasing A.I. adoption, as companies looked to automate certain tasks as a way to overcome tech skill gaps (as well as some of the labor shortages associated with the pandemic).

In March 2016, Microsoft sent its artificial intelligence (AI) bot Tay out into the wild to see how it interacted with humans. According to Microsoft Cybersecurity Field CTO Diana Kelley, the team behind Tay wanted the bot to pick up natural language and thought Twitter was the best place for it to go. "A great example of AI and ML going awry is Tay," Kelley told RSA Conference 2019 Asia Pacific and Japan in Singapore last week. Tay was targeted at American 18 to 24-year olds and was "designed to engage and entertain people where they connect with each other online through casual and playful conversation". Here's how it's related to artificial intelligence, how it works and why it matters.

"If you want a job for the next few years, work in technology. If you want a job for life, work in cybersecurity." The field of cybersecurity will soon face some dire, but somewhat conflicting, views on the availability of qualified cybersecurity professionals over the next four or five years. Global Information Security Workforce Study from the Center for Cyber Safety and Education, predicts a shortfall of 1.8 million cybersecurity workers by 2022. The cybersecurity workforce gap will hit 1.8 million by 2022.