Cyber Security Project Launches Initiative on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

In keeping with the Belfer Center’s mandate on science and international affairs, the Cyber Security Project has launched a new research initiative on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) and their implications for cybersecurity. Led by Michael Sulmeyer, the Cyber Security Project seeks to explore themes of conflict in cyberspace and both AI and ML will play a growing role in national defense and security. Cyber Security Project fellow Ben Buchanan began the focus on AI and ML with his June 2017 Belfer Center Report, “Machine Learning for Policy Makers.”

To kick off the next wave of the AI and ML initiative, the Cyber Security Project in February hosted an expert panel on the implications of machine learning for cybersecurity. Headed by Sameer Bhalotra, CEO of StackRox and former senior director for cyber security at the White House, the panel brought together experts from Silicon Valley to offer the tech perspective on machine learning. Jennifer Lin (Director, Product Management at Google), Dan Chenok (Executive Director of the IBM Center for The Business of Government), and Tom Corn (Senior Vice President and General Manager of Security Products at VMware) offered their thoughts on the threats from machine learning, current cybersecurity challenges as a result, and some of the policy questions stemming from this technology.

Center Director Ash Carter opened the panel in front of a robust audience of faculty, fellows, and students from HKS and other Boston-area universities. The panelists encouraged transparency of ML research and software, as well as grappling with the question of how humans and machines can work together in the field of national security and defense.

Also in February, the Belfer Center will co-sponsored a JFK Jr. Forum with Jason Matheny, Director of Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), on the public policy challenges of AI.

In the coming months, the Cyber Security Project will also publish a new research agenda on the role of AI in national defense.