AI Appreciation Day: predictions, potentials, and caveats

2023 has accelerated the conversation on artificial intelligence (AI), with vendors announcing AI-related capabilities and partnerships, and consumers trying out AI apps to support their work and leisure hours. Lenovo, for example, recently announced a commitment to invest US$1 B in expanding infrastructure solutions, accelerating the rollout of AI for businesses worldwide.

"We believe in inclusivity and ensuring widespread access to AI, empowering individuals and communities to embrace the transformative potential of this technology. Together with ISVs, partners, and customers, we are nurturing AI's growth and building an intelligence-driven future,” Kumar Mitra, MD and Regional GM, CAP, Lenovo Singapore explained.

Industry observers have marked AI Appreciation Day on July 16 with thoughts on the impact and promise of AI:

The progress

You Qinghong, Solutions Engineering Lead, Greater China, ASEAN and South Korea, NetApp, said people in the tech industry have much to be thankful for. "The technology has progressed tremendously in the last year, with many more promises and growth opportunities on the horizon. NetApp’s recent Cloud Complexity Report, for instance, found that 56% of Asia Pacific tech executives expect half or more of their cloud deployments to be supported by AI-driven applications by 2030," he said.

While the general direction is clear, guidance on the specifics of currently deploying AI is also needed. Suresh Sambandam, CEO of Kissflow said: "As organisations embark on AI initiatives, they need to plan for two parallel tracks. I call the first track the tactical track, where organisations need to immediately become consumers of AI services for their internal use while also providing AI-based interfaces to external touch points like customers, suppliers and partners. This needs to be done in the next two to three quarters.

"The second track is a strategic track, which fundamentally rethinks what an “AI first” paradigm would look like if an organisation is re-built from scratch. As we celebrate AI Appreciation Day, I hope organisations make plans for both these tracks to excel in the new AI era."

The prerequisites for success: Data

"To unleash the full potential of AI, it will be essential for organisations to build a data pipeline or fabric that spans across on-premises, hosted data centre and hyperscaler cloud, with real time visibility and manageability. This will let organisations harness all available information in real time and ultimately, maximise business impact," You said.

Data also figured in a comment by Ravi Rajendran, VP, Cohesity Asia-Pacific & Japan. "AI is transforming technology, the business landscape, and even society’s perceptions of what the future may hold. Yet the success of AI adoption, the insights it provides, and capability it offers, means nothing if the data is inaccurate or incomplete. This is because data fuels AI algorithms, vectors, and context.

"Organisations need a constant stream of data to develop and deploy their AI models because without new data their AI models can’t continue to learn and improve their accuracy. This is why organisations who invest in collecting, storing, and analysing high-quality data will be the winners of tomorrow because they’ll be able to leverage AI’s power for their competitive advantage," he said.

"In today’s modern and distributed IT environments and hybrid data estates, collecting, collating, and leveraging data is incredibly complex. This is why organisations need a modern platform that manages and secures their data, features a distributed architecture, backs up backups and secures their data estate, improves cyber resilience, indexes data, and offers instant data searchability. In celebrating AI Appreciation Day, organisations should investigate the ability of a modern data management and security platform to unlock the potential of their data and maximise the power of the AI models they plan to deploy.”

Wai Tai Yeap, GM, South East Asia Electrical Sector, Eaton, touched on a collaboration between humans and AI when it comes to data. "While AI holds immense potential across diverse domains, it is vital to recognise that its capabilities are limited to the data it receives — it cannot supersede the necessity for human input in work environments. Therefore, organisations should adopt a holistic approach that embraces AI and automation technologies as aids in tasks while fostering a collaborative relationship between humans and machines. This symbiotic alliance is instrumental in driving innovation and propelling businesses towards success," he said.

The prerequisites for success: Security

Security is another must-have. "While AI-enhanced security tools can be used to better protect organisations (and their end users) from cyberthreats, the technology can also be used by malicious actors to help them create more sophisticated attacks and automate activities that mimic human-like behaviour without being detected by some software security tools," said Kelvin Lim, Director of Security Engineering, APAC, Synopsys Software Integrity Group.

Lim said the need for human intervention may decrease alongside each progressive step of the AI evolution, but until then, the importance of maintaining an effective and holistic application security program is more critical than ever before. 

"Already, there are reports of hackers leveraging using AI to launch machine learning-enabled penetration tests, impersonate humans on social media in platform-specific attacks, create deep fake data and perform CAPTCHA cracking," he said.

"For both attackers and defenders, cybersecurity is a never-ending race. Now, AI is an integral part of the tools used by both sides. As a result, there is a growing importance for human-AI collaboration. As AI-aided attacks become more sophisticated, AI-aided cybersecurity tools will be required to successfully counter the attack. By delegating these tasks to a security tool that’s integrated with AI, humans (are freed to) provide unique and actionable insights on how to best mitigate attacks."

Yeap emphasised the human-AI collaboration element for security as well. "As cyberattacks continue to surge, collaboration between AI and human experts becomes essential, particularly in critical infrastructure systems where human intervention and expertise are indispensable for successful interaction and integration with automated technology. 

"A recommended approach is to adopt a layered strategy that combines AI automation with human intervention. This approach ensures comprehensive protection, efficient threat detection, and prompt response. AI can analyse data, identify patterns of cyberattacks, and bolster security measures, allowing human experts to focus on critical aspects." 

"AI has come a long way since its inception. ChatGPT has democratised AI, and generative AI is increasingly adopted within enterprise settings. As we embrace innovations that offer productivity improvements across a range of industries as well as help organisations be more effective in their operations, we also need to be mindful of the security aspects of AI as well as AI as-a-service," said Chris Thomas, Senior Security Advisor, APJ, at ExtraHop.

"C-level executives are concerned that proprietary data and other sensitive information are being shared with these services. At ExtraHop, we recognise the challenges organisations face with the increasing proliferation of AI as-a-service and the associated risks of data leakage. Despite these concerns, we firmly believe that the productivity gains offered by these AI tools far outweigh the potential exposure risks if we take pre-emptive security measures. 

"As we celebrate AI Appreciation Day, it is imperative and extremely important that organisations have the necessary tools they need to have visibility of what data is being shared, and what could be at risk. Organisations have to find the right balance of innovation and security to reap the wide-ranging benefits of generative AI, while still maintaining data protections."

F5 had detailed advice for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs). Shahnawaz Backer, Senior Solutions Architect, F5, noted that CISOs are closely involved in the implementation and adoption of AI, and said that there are potential risks stemming from the irresponsible use of generative AI tools, AI-powered cyberattacks, as well as the need to address compliance.

"The reckless utilisation of first- or third-party generative AI tools can inadvertently expose confidential data, leading to breaches of privacy and security," he elaborated. "Cyber attackers leveraging AI capabilities pose a significant threat as they may exploit vulnerabilities in existing defenses utilising intelligent evasion techniques or overwhelm systems with automated botnets."

Organisations must navigate the complexities of regional regulations pertaining to the collection and utilisation of personal information, ensuring compliance to safeguard privacy and mitigate legal risks," he added.

"Addressing these risks requires the proactive involvement of CISOs who must engage in meticulous planning and execution of a comprehensive strategy."

According to Backer of F5, key considerations for developing such a strategy would include identifying where AI can yield the greatest benefits while acknowledging associated risks, implementing robust systems for classifying and governing the data necessary to train AI models, and establishing an enterprise-wide policy that promotes responsible use of AI by staff members.

Other considerations would include the need for vigilant monitoring mechanisms to detect and investigate any unusual behaviours within AI systems, as well as ethical aspects, such as ensuring that AI applications are developed and deployed with privacy, fairness, transparency, and accountability in mind.

AI conceptual image generated by Blue Willow.

"By adopting proactive security measures, monitoring emerging threats, and adhering to legal and regulatory requirements, CISOs can help organisations navigate the AI landscape with confidence and minimise potential risks," he said.

"As AI is unleashing at a faster pace, organisations need to keep up with the latest advancements, best practices, and potential risks associated with AI to effectively harness its power while mitigating vulnerabilities," cautioned Ramprakash Ramamoorthy, Director of AI Research at ManageEngine and Zoho. Ramamoorthy's current advice for businesses in the region is to remain cautious.

"The same transformative cybersecurity capabilities that make AI indispensable to enterprises can also be exploited by threat actors. It is crucial for organisations in the region to make appropriate technology investments and policy decisions proactively," he said.

"To fortify their cybersecurity defenses, businesses should equip themselves with sophisticated threat intelligence systems and analytics that focus on user behaviour. As AI adoption is reaching a tipping point, collaboration is of utmost importance within the cybersecurity community. Researchers, professionals, enterprises, and policymakers in Southeast Asia should work in tandem to strengthen the collective security posture." 

Rebecca Law, Country Manager, Singapore, Check Point Software Technologies, agreed. "Today we have several tools that exemplify the possibilities of artificial intelligence in the field of cybersecurity. However, to mitigate the risks associated with advanced AI, it is important that researchers and policymakers work together to ensure that these technologies are developed in a safe and beneficial way," she said.

SAS commented on risks and ethics as part of a larger AI strategy as well. Lim Hsin Yin, MD, SAS Institute, Singapore, noted that AI is now being democratised through ChatGPT and has marked a major milestone in innovation. "As we celebrate AI Appreciation Day, it is also imperative to look at the other side of the coin. While generative AI can provide a competitive edge, improve productivity and increase efficiency, organisations should also take heed of the potential risks before investing in AI technology or solutions. Organisations should start with organisational values to establish an effective strategy such as the responsible use of AI," Lim said.

"By intentionally implementing generative AI, organisations can mitigate adverse impacts and promote positive outcomes for individuals and society as well as for their business."

"At SAS, we propose that organisations look at a model based on the principles of human-centricity, transparency, robustness, privacy and security, inclusivity and accountability as a starting point for responsible usage of generative AI."

The impact

NetApp's You has identified three broad areas where AI is making a big contribution:

Driving intelligence at the edge

"The amount of data generated by smart edge devices and a large number of ingestion points can overwhelm compute, storage and networks at the edge. AI can enable edge-level analytics to process and selectively pass on data during ingest, create different tiers of data service, and speed up data movement," You said.

Increasing performance at the core

"The network core is the heart of organisations’ AI data pipeline, and it demands high input/output (I/O) performance. There is room for AI to be deployed to preprocess data and feed the data to the neural networks for model training, removing performance bottlenecks and accelerating AI workloads," observed You.

Accelerating analysis in the cloud

"AI and the cloud are natural bedfellows, with the cloud offering an ideal environment to develop AI workflows, run proofs of concept, and form a foundation to expand on," You said. "With the right guidance, more organisations can take advantage of this synergy going forward."

The applications

AI is already influencing cybersecurity as various commenters have noted. "Through AI and machine learning, organisations can now identify aberrant behaviour and maintain a secure environment. AI enables a proactive approach to threat response by detecting deviations in tracked metrics and consistently monitoring entity actions to detect threats at an initial stage," Ramamoorthy listed.

"Although AI is still an emerging technology, we are already amazed by its game-changing potential to improve human lives - even in historically non-technology domains such as real estate," added Haran Shivanan, CEO, iviva. The company helps businesses transition to a low-carbon economy.

According to Shivanan, AI can help highly-pollutive buildings operate more efficiently. "Owners and operators, especially of non-grade A buildings, now have a simple and cost-effective way to achieve the holy grail - three M's of building operations - maximise efficiency, maximise space utilisation and minimise costs - driven by AI and all easily done through iviva's platform," he said.

"As we celebrate AI Appreciation Day, we look forward to pushing the boundaries of this technology to help us drive the transition to a low-carbon economy."

Chua Hock Leng, Area VP, ASEAN and Greater China, Pure Storage, mentioned the relationship between AI and sustainability as well when he advised businesses to think about AI strategically, re-evaluate technology decisions, and optimise its potential while minimising the environmental impact. "The AI gold rush is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can create new value, realise productivity gains, and enhance customer experiences. On the flipside, it has increased carbon risk in organisations," he said.

"Large-scale AI workloads and advanced data analytics demand higher energy consumption. Google’s AlphaGo Zero – the first AI-based computer program to beat a professional human Go player – generated 96 tonnes of carbon dioxide over 40 days of research training. This is tantamount to the total carbon footprint from 1,000 hours worth of air travel.

"However, the right technology choices can mitigate the impact on the environment. For example, all- flash storage has lower energy and cooling requirements and is a more sustainable alternative to legacy storage systems, which consume more electricity and require a bigger physical footprint. "We should also consider the potential for AI to be used to augment sustainability efforts by providing data-driven insights into your organisation’s environmental footprint and where you can lower carbon emissions."

The promise

"The future of AI is dazzling, with many more applications expected to emerge over the next year that we don’t yet envision today. Hold on tight for an exhilarating ride," You predicted.

*ISV stands for independent software vendor.