Recently I came across a fantastic new paper by a group of NYU and Cornell researchers entitled “How to think about end-to-end encryption and AI.” I’m extremely grateful to see th…
Despite the bad title, the article itself is worth a read, though the topics covered are being discussed long ago, but serves as a good reminder.
A point the author raises is about data security in end-to-end encrypted communications when using with AI. Remember that end-to-end encryption is specifically protecting data in transit? It doesn’t do anything after the data is delivered to the end device. Even before the age of “AI”, the other end can do whatever he wants on that piece of data. He can shared the communication with another person next to him which the sender might or might not know of, upload it to social media, or hand it to the law enforcement. And the “AI” the tech industry going forward is just an other participant of the communication built right into the device. It can do exactly the same as any recipients wants to. It can attempt to try to (badly) summarize the communication for you, submit that communication to any third party, or even report you for CSAM as it determines your engaging in “grooming behavior.”
And the author also asked the question, “Who does your AI agent actually work for?” However, this question is already been answered by Windows Recall, the prime example of an AI agent. It collects data in an attempt to “help” us recall things in the past, but it will answer questions from anyone have access to it. Be it, you, your family/friend, or even law enforcement. The answer is anyone.
Despite the bad title, the article itself is worth a read, though the topics covered are being discussed long ago, but serves as a good reminder.
A point the author raises is about data security in end-to-end encrypted communications when using with AI. Remember that end-to-end encryption is specifically protecting data in transit? It doesn’t do anything after the data is delivered to the end device. Even before the age of “AI”, the other end can do whatever he wants on that piece of data. He can shared the communication with another person next to him which the sender might or might not know of, upload it to social media, or hand it to the law enforcement. And the “AI” the tech industry going forward is just an other participant of the communication built right into the device. It can do exactly the same as any recipients wants to. It can attempt to try to (badly) summarize the communication for you, submit that communication to any third party, or even report you for CSAM as it determines your engaging in “grooming behavior.”
And the author also asked the question, “Who does your AI agent actually work for?” However, this question is already been answered by Windows Recall, the prime example of an AI agent. It collects data in an attempt to “help” us recall things in the past, but it will answer questions from anyone have access to it. Be it, you, your family/friend, or even law enforcement. The answer is anyone.