AI FOR THE ALLIES — Artificial intelligence has taken the world by storm over the past year, raising debate about risks and rewards. But at one of the world’s leading security conferences, it’s just entering the chat, as Maggie reports from Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Halifax International Security Forum, first held in 2009 to rally the world’s democracies against autocratic forces, gathered hundreds of top military personnel, diplomats, activists and lawmakers from around the globe over the weekend to focus on the impacts of Russia’s war in Ukraine. That conflict and the Israel-Hamas battle largely dominated the three days of talks within the harbor city’s Westin Hotel. But buzz about the future of AI crept into conversations on the sidelines, with interests piqued by the rollout of generative AI platforms over the past year like ChatGPT, as well as the integration of such software into defense efforts. The conference featured a panel on innovation that delved into AI, along with more relaxed dinner and breakfast discussions focused on the issue. It’s a stark difference from 2022, when AI did not show up on the topical agenda at all, just days ahead of the rollout of ChatGPT. The technology hadn’t appeared on the program since at least 2019. “In all of the different meetings that we’ve had, there’s been some element of artificial intelligence incorporated into it,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s cyber subcommittee, said during a press conference Saturday. — Not always the focus: While officials publicly discussed the importance of AI, in closed-door meetings it still took a backseat to more analog conflict concerns. “I haven’t had any [AI] conversations while I’ve been here,” said Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jim Risch (R-Idaho), co-leader of the U.S. congressional delegation to the summit. “It has not been something that’s on everybody’s minds.” Read more from Maggie (for Pros!) here. LENDING A HELPING (CYBER) HAND — NATO leadership is serving as a middleman to help foot the bill for private sector companies defending Ukraine’s critical networks against cyberattacks, a top NATO leader told Maggie on the sidelines of the Halifax conference. “We’re arranging for allies also to fund private sector companies to help them defend their networks, so we are arranging for contracts to be paid to private companies for them to then go and help Ukraine defend,” James Appathurai, the NATO deputy assistant secretary general for emerging security challenges, said Sunday. Appathurai pointed to the free cybersecurity services that companies such as Google Cloud’s Mandiant and Microsoft have provided to Ukraine since the Russian invasion in early 2022 as being worth “hundreds of millions of euros,” but that support is not sustainable as the war in Ukraine grinds on. “We can’t expect them to do it for free forever,” Appathurai said. “We need to rethink how we pay private sector firms to do security-related things over the long term. Otherwise, we are leaving it to the whims of their CEOs.” — We’re all in this together: Beyond Ukraine, NATO is also working to help secure its own member states against both government-backed cyberattacks and cybercriminals. NATO member Albania was hit last year by a massive cyberattack linked to the Iranian government that temporarily crippled government services, and fellow NATO state Montenegro grappled with a separate attack. Appathurai noted that NATO has also faced “nonstop Russian cyberattacks” amid the war in Ukraine, and that the bloc is working to ensure that nations with less cyber resources are not left as sitting ducks for these attacks. “One of the things we’re trying to do in NATO is pair up the more advanced countries and the resourced countries with the less advanced and worse resourced countries to help raise all boats together,” he said.
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