Risk Identification and the Malicious Use of A.I.

On 17 May 2023, Andrew Dolan, co-Director of the Center for the Study of the New Security Challenges (CSNSC) Ltd., held a workshop at Ludovika-University of Public Service titled Risk Identification and the Malicious Use of A.I. The event was opened by Dr Boglárka Koller, Jean Monnet Chair and vice-rector for international affairs, who also gave a brief introduction about Mr Dolan to the audience.

Mr Dolan started his speech with the sudden implosion of A.I., spreading to our daily life and now regularly affecting it. He highlighted the obvious benefits of this technology in areas such as healthcare and business; however, he was quick to underline the inadequacies of regulation and law regarding it: “Yet there is a growing concern that this technology has capabilities, which if used maliciously, can damage society and in extremis, become an existential risk.”

His main point was that regulation needs to be swift and thorough due to the unprecedented speed at the technology develops and parallel directly affects life. In addition, due to the nature of the technology, A.I. sometimes can seriously undermine the ability to tell fact from fiction – truth from untruth. Due to this property of the technology, exploitation is limitless, especially in the aspect of armaments and militaristic usage of A.I. “Last time something similar happened was directly after the Second World War when nuclear regulation became a hot topic”- said Mr Dolan. According to the expert, the possible catastrophes, which could happen due to the non-regulation of A.I., are not just fiction anymore. AI-enabled cyber weapons would seriously impact critical network infrastructure and the ‘Internet of Things’ – and a networked society is a seriously vulnerable society.

The presentation quickly turned into an interactive discussion with the audience actively joining in. During the discussion, the audience had the opportunity to speak directly with Mr Dolan and discuss the possible resolutions and different hot-takes on the issue of artificial intelligence.