Today’s topics include artificial intelligence disrupting the workforce, and Trend Micro paying hackers $325,000 at Mobile Pwn2Own 2018.
According to two experts at the Techonomy conference in Half Moon Bay, Calif., on Nov. 12, the threat and solutions of artificial intelligence eliminating certain jobs done by humans aren’t well-understood.
Paul Daugherty, chief technology and innovation officer at Accenture, has a positive approach to AI innovation in the workplace, saying, “About 15 percent of jobs will be completely replaced, but the majority of jobs will be improved.”
Meanwhile, CEO of Sinovation Ventures Kai-Fu Lee believes AI has limitations and cannot be compassionate. “AI is a tool; it cannot be creative. … Anyone’s work that is purely routine—those jobs will be replaced by AI.”
Lee also said managing the development and deployment of AI is key. “There are still issues to be solved—safety, privacy and job displacement,” he said. “But the idea of AI becoming some kind of super-intelligence taking over the world is overblown; it won’t happen.”
At Mobile Pwn2Own 2018, held in Tokyo this week, sponsor Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative awarded a total of $325,000 to security researchers who reported more than 16 new vulnerabilities, exposing risks in fully patched Apple iPhone, Samsung Galaxy S9 and Xiaomi Mi6 phones.
According to Dustin Childs, communications manager for ZDI, “We were surprised to see how popular the Xiaomi handset was, with five targets. Another positive surprise was a full day of successes on Day 1. That’s a rarity for Pwn2Own.”
The Pwn2Own contest is held twice a year. The first event, held in March, focused on desktop systems, and the second event targeted mobile devices. The team known as Fluoroacetate won the overall event by finding a near-field communications issue in the Xiaomi Mi6 handset and a vulnerability in the baseband component of the new Samsung Galaxy S9.
