NEWS YOU CAN’T MISS

White House Orders More AI Use in Defense and Intelligence

President Joe Biden has signed a framework instructing federal agencies to harness AI for national security purposes while also addressing potential risks.

Urgency Driven by Global Competition

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan emphasized the critical nature of this directive, describing it as the first-ever plan for "harnessing the power and managing the risks of AI to advance our national security".

The urgency is largely driven by the perception of a technological arms race with rival nations noting that "countries like China recognize similar opportunities to modernize and revolutionize their own military and intelligence capabilities."

Controversy and Criticism

The White House memo does emphasize the need to mitigate AI-related risks, including invasions of privacy, bias and discrimination and safety concerns for individuals and potential human rights abuses.

But the directive has not been without criticism. The American Civil Liberties Union expressed concerns that the policy grants too much discretion to national security agencies and doesn't go far enough in protecting against "dangerous and unaccountable AI systems".

As I’ve said before: the geopolitics of AI is complex and will define the AI experience of citizens like you and I. The global race for AI dominance, particularly between the US and China, is on and will massively shape geopolitics in the coming years.

Biggest Digital Theft of Medical Data Revealed

The cyberattack on Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group (UHG), has been revealed as the largest known digital theft of medical records in U.S. history, affecting over 100 million individuals. 🤯 

For context: Change Healthcare processes about one-third of patient records in the U.S.

Here’s the timeline:

• The cyberattack became public on February 21, 2024, when Change Healthcare took much of its network offline.

• The stolen information includes personal data (like addresses and dates of birth, phone numbers), government identity documents (like Social Security and passport numbers), health data (like medications and clinical test results) and financial information (like health insurance details).

The attackers and the payment:

• The company attributed the attack to ALPHV/BlackCat, a Russian-speaking ransomware and extortion gang.

• The company reportedly paid a $22 million ransom to the attackers and then the ransomware gang's leaders vanished after receiving the payment.

• There is no evidence that the cybercriminals deleted the stolen data after receiving the ransom

So what happened?

• UnitedHealth's CEO confirmed that the attackers gained access using stolen credentials not protected by multi-factor authentication (MFA).

This massive data breach highlights the critical importance of robust cybersecurity measures. Cybersecurity is the one thing that keeps me up at night. 😳

WOMAN IN TECH

Meerah Rajavel, CIO at Palo Alto Networks

Celebrating this week's Woman in Tech 🥳: Meet Meerah Rajavel, CIO at Palo Alto Networks, one of the largest global security firms, valued at over $118 billion.

Her work plays a great role in driving digital transformation, ensuring the organization’s infrastructure supports its mission to safeguard digital environments worldwide.

Background and Early Life: Born in a small town in India, Rajavel was the first person in her family to pursue an engineering degree. With a keen interest in programming, she convinced her family to support her education and graduated from Thiagarajar College of Engineering in computer science, going on to further her education at Santa Clara University and Harvard Business School.

Career roles: Rajavel started her career journey with a programming role at Lotus Infotech, where she worked on turnkey projects for large corporations. She later held leadership roles, including CIO at Forcepoint, Citrix, and Qlik Technologies, and served as a Senior Director at McAfee.

Rajavel has also served as a board member at TruU, Health Alliance Plan, and JFrog.

For her contributions in tech, she has received several recognitions over the years:

• A Super Global Winner at the 2024 Bay Area ORBIE Awards for her work at Palo Alto Networks

• Named one of the Top 25 Women Leaders in Cybersecurity by The Software Report

• South Florida Apogee Award for Technology Leader (2020)

It’s inspiring to see how Rajavel is breaking barriers in both cybersecurity and leadership, ensuring that women have a seat at the table in one of the most critical industries of our time.

“It’s okay to fall if you know how to get up”- Meerah Rajavel

Food for Thought

Would You Listen to a Radio Station Run by AI? 🎙️🤖

A Polish radio station, OFF Radio Krakow, has replaced its journalists with AI-generated hosts in a first-of-its-kind experiment, aiming to attract younger listeners with content on culture and art.

The decision sparked backlash after former presenter Mateusz Demski, among those let go, warned in an open letter that replacing human journalists sets a dangerous precedent. Over 15,000 people signed his petition.

Imagine managing thousands of customer inquiries daily with a team that feels stretched thin.

That's the challenge my AI company Addo AI’s client faced: overwhelmed by equipment queries, warranty checks, and product support. With 11 agents and over 6,200 scattered documents complicating the process, their support system, which relied on osTicket and QAD, struggled with delays and manual document checks. This situation led to frustrated customers and a fatigued support team.

Our solution? A Generative AI-powered Virtual Agent. Integrated with their ERP system, the Virtual Agent streamlines support by verifying warranties, handling returns, and delivering personalized responses instantly. This transformation boosts efficiency and satisfaction, empowering both the support team and their customers.

Find out more in our case study.

Happy weekend everyone! 😊😊

Ayesha ♥️