The cybersecurity benefits of artificial intelligence and machine learning

Let’s talk about the practical application of artificial intelligence to cybersecurity. Or rather, let’s read about it. My friend Sean Martin has written a three-part series on the topic for ITSP Magazine, exploring AI, machine learning, and other related topics. I provided review and commentary into the series.

The first part, “It’s a Marketing Mess! Artificial Intelligence vs Machine Learning,” explores probably the biggest challenge about AI: Hyperbole. That, and inconsistency. Every lab, every vendor, every conference, every analyst, defines even the most basic terminology — when they bother to define it at all. Vagueness begets vagueness, and so the terms “artificial intelligence” and “machine learning” are thrown around with wanton abandon. As Sean writes,

The latest marketing discovery of AI as a cybersecurity product term only exacerbates an already complex landscape of jingoisms with like muddled understanding. A raft of these associated terms, such as big data, smart data, heuristics (which can be a branch of AI), behavioral analytics, statistics, data science, machine learning and deep learning. Few experts agree on exactly what those terms mean, so how can consumers of the solutions that sport these fancy features properly understand what those things are?

“Machine Learning: The More Intelligent Artificial Intelligence,” the second installment, picks up by digging into pattern recognition. Specifically, the story is about when AI software can discern patterns based on its own examination of raw data. Sean also digs into deep learning:

Deep Learning (also known as deep structured learning, hierarchical learning or deep machine learning) is a branch of machine learning based on a set of algorithms that attempt to model high level abstractions in data by using a deep graph with multiple processing layers, composed of multiple linear and non-linear transformations.

In the conclusion, “The Actual Benefits of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning,” Sean brings it home to your business. How you can tell if an AI solution is real? How can you tell what it really does? That means going beyond the marketing material’s attempts to obfuscate:

The bottom line on AI-based technologies in the security world: Whether it’s called machine learning or some flavor of analytics, look beyond the terminology – and the oooh, ahhh hype of artificial intelligence – to see what the technology does. As the saying goes, pay for the steak – not the artificial intelligent marketing sizzle.

It was a pleasure working on this series with Sean, and we hope you enjoy reading it.