Deepfake technology, sometimes colloquially named ‘deepfakes’, has been getting a lot of attention in the mainstream news media in recent years.
But now, it’s no longer just a harmless entertainment medium, it poses a significant threat to your business if used for nefarious purposes.
Generative AI: A bird’s eye view
To understand AI as it is today, there are a few terms we need to define.
Generative AI – GenAI learns from patterns in its training data and predicts the expected output based on what’s being asked of it.
Neural networks – Computational frameworks that mimic the human brain’s structure and function through a system of nodes.
Multimodality – Ingests data across multiple mediums such as text, speech, images, and video. It can create output in various mediums too.
Hallucination – When GenAI creates inaccurate, misleading, or false information. This occurs because of inaccuracies or biases in the training data.
Foundation models – Deep learning architecture that takes multimodal data from multiple mediums and examines it at a component level to cross-analyze it more effectively.
A foundation model is continually fed information so that over time the structure changes and adapts. This is so that it can qualify more effectively the data output it creates.
Output mediums include:
- Information extraction
- Sentiment analysis
- Image captioning
- Summarization
- Instruction interpret and follow
- Object recognition
- Question and answer
- Code analysis and generation
Prompt engineering
As we get better and more precise with the prompts that we use in GenAI, the better suited to our purpose the data provided becomes.
Chatbots are the most common way end users interface with large language models (LLMs). However, the landscape is vast in complexity and is growing.
The market for GenAI apps and software includes fine-tuned specialist models designed for specific tasks, and AI-integrated software for productivity, collaboration, and more.
AI is a game-changer for attackers
GenAI has made it easier for cyber attackers to launch their attacks in several ways:
- Automation has impacted the sheer volume of attacks
- Simplified personalization of attacks
- Made targeting easier
- Improved code generation to exploit vulnerabilities
Please let us know if you have any questions about your IT environment or how to secure it from outside cyber threats. We are here for you! Contact us at (732) 780-8615 or email at [email protected].
Stephen McCormick, “Deepfake technology: Why it’s a risk to your business“, smatermsp.com, June 27th, 2024