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The Coming AI Hackers (Data Privacy Seminar Speaker Series Fall 2021)

Event Type
Lecture
Sponsor
iSchool; European Union Center
Date
Oct 21, 2021   12:00 pm  
Registration
Registration
Views
25

Data protection and privacy are growing concerns in our ever more connected world. Some believe that over the next decade, data privacy will be recognized as one of society’s most pressing problems. Therefore, the School of Information Sciences in collaboration with the European Union Center at the University of Illinois is pleased to offer this timely seminar series which brings world class privacy experts of diverse backgrounds and perspectives to share their points of view with us each month.

Hacking is inherently a creative process. It’s finding a vulnerability in a system: something the system allows, but is unintended and unanticipated by the system’s creators – something that follows the rules of the system but subverts its intent. Normally, we think of hacking as something done to computer systems, but we can extend this conceptualization to any system of rules. The tax code can be hacked; vulnerabilities are called “loopholes” and exploits are called “tax avoidance strategies.” Financial markets can be hacked. So can any system of laws, or democracy itself. This is a human endeavor, but we can imagine a world where AIs can be hackers. AIs are already finding new vulnerabilities in computer code and loopholes in contracts. We need to consider a world where hacks of our social, economic, and political systems are discovered at computer speeds, and then exploited at computer scale. Right now, our systems of “patching” these systems operate at human speeds, which won’t nearly be enough.

You will need to register in advance via this link in order to join these virtual meetings.

Data Privacy Seminar Series Fall 2021 Speakers:

Lecture 1, September 16, 2021, 12-1pm, Jonathan Fox, Cisco Inc
Lecture 2, October 21, 2021, 12-1pm, Bruce Schneier
Lecture 3, November 18, 2021, 12-1pm, Florian Schaub
Lecture 4, December 9, 2021, 12-1pm, Alessandro Acquisti

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