Artificial intelligence is more than just a buzzword. It’s the result of many technologies coming together, starting at the hardware layers.

AI is being used to generate code and protect algorithms while also being used for security in analyzing cloud and code usage, explained Merritt Baer (pictured), field chief information security officer of Lacework Inc. Regulating the acceleration of artificial general intelligence is a current cultural tension, with some advocating for acceleration and others for slowing it down.

“We’ve talked about AWS Nitro before and some of the confidential computing benefits that folks get from the fact that AWS built it to not be human accessible,” Baer said. “So, you don’t have to pay extra for that factor. This is part of a longer tale about the chip industry and other things. It’s important in that, I think right now, of course, AI is a buzzword, but what we’re really seeing is the culmination of a lot of technologies coming to bear.”

Baer spoke with theCUBE industry analyst John Furrier at the “Supercloud 5: The Battle for AI Supremacy” event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed how securing the cloud and addressing potential security threats in the new generation of AI is crucial.

Security around AI

Security around AI will be important, with the ability to do more and know more, and the most likely source of an attack being a valid credential being misused, according to Baer. Companies and industries are having a reckoning and need to define the values they want to live by — with tech being human-constructed and the potential for underserved communities to gain more accessibility, while also aiming for more, better and faster progress in a deliberate and conscious way.

“I think that security around AI and also the security of your AI will be areas that we care about for the foreseeable future. But we’re going to be doing stuff at an accelerated pace with that high power compute, with the ability to do more and know when you’re hitting a wire,” Baer said. “A proverbial wire, like a threshold. So, being able to get real-time alerting and really low latency alerting around things that look anomalous.”

Security should not be seen as a cost center, but as part of the business proposition, Baer explained. Lacework is delivering effective capabilities to help customers take action and improve over time. Improving security team response time, instant response, threat detection and identity monitoring are crucial for CISOs, who often feel isolated in their roles and can benefit from automation.

“As a CISO, you want to reduce the likelihood of a bad day. You want to notice when your bad day starts and have it have little to no impact. Then you also want to get that for the ROI that you are aware of for something that you have already bargained for,” Baer said. “Is it known? Is it an unknown? These are business decisions, and security executives are increasingly realizing that they need to present this in a sense that makes investments relevant.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the “Supercloud 5: The Battle for AI Supremacy” event:

Photo: SiliconANGLE