Data & device security in focus as AI makes inroads

Data and device security has come into spotlight as more and more workplaces become AI compliant
Palo Alto: The oft quoted ‘AI is the future’ statement is fast turning — if it already hasn’t — into a cliche. In fact, tech companies are asserting ‘AI is already here’.
An increasing number of companies across the world are integrating AI into their products and workplaces. At the recent

HP Imagine 2024

event held in Palo Alto, San Francisco, much of the discussion revolved around how AI is already changing the way people work as more companies embrace this disruptive technology.

Improving security profile:
Also at the centre of discussion was security and utilisation of AI. When asked about concerns regarding AI and its impact on companies, including creation of jobs, Alex Cho, president of Personal Systems at HP Inc, told TOI: “With AI, there are concerns about security of data. That’s the reason why security will be increasingly important, and we continue to invest in that… On the other hand, AI allows you to add more value to your work, and it creates capacity to do more types of work.

I don’t think the concern is about people not having more jobs, the bigger issue will be that companies that use AI will be more advantaged over those who don’t. AI will be a great additive.”
Elaborating on security, Cho said, “A lot of things need to be protected in the AI world. New types of threats are emerging and cyber criminals are leveraging AI to amplify

social engineering attacks

. HP is providing protection in its devices against these

AI-powered attacks

, including Phishing… We are using AI to guard against AI attacks.”
HP said its deepfake detector detects AI-generated audio to warn users of potential fraud. It said OS can be reinstalled and its devices can be recovered remotely. Even if a device is compromised in a cyber-attack, companies can still access and restore it.
Resource sharing:
Among the important topics discussed at the event was optimum utilisation of available resources. Most organisations — companies, educational and research institutes — are already resource constrained, and with integration of AI into workstations, resources such as GPU (graphic processing unit) are further strained.
AI utilisation can slow down a workstation, affecting overall performance. HP said it has come up with a shared resource utilisation solution, which helps companies overcome these problems.
“At company level, the GPU resource utilisation is only at 25% and there is a huge opportunity to increase productivity,” said Cho. Through HP Boost, the solutions company is enabling every workstation to host its GPU for use across the enterprise. “By sharing of GPU of individual workstations at organisation level, resource-intensive AI applications can be run efficiently, making these operations cost effective.”
AI integration with devices:
HP is also integrating AI with its PCs and Flipbooks. Its AI Companion feature can recognise the context of a meeting, and search and furnish related information to the user. The AI utilisation data is also stored locally, as against on a cloud, keeping personal stuff private, unless users want to share it.
Creators using AI have problems as everything they create is taken by AI models or companies, unless they are paying. However, with HP PCs, AI data will be stored locally. They also come with Poly Camera Pro, which utilises NPU (neural processing unit) to power webcam features such as spotlight and background blur.
Among other products launched at the HP Imagine event were some workplace solutions. The company said its AI Producer Studio transforms a PC into a production tool. This effectively means that one person can handle a multi-camera set up and host a webinar, as the PC knows when to make camera cuts and switches.
HP is also using AI for printing. By smart formatting using AI, its new tech removes unnecessary text or ads around intended prints. AI gives users choices to help refine what they want to print. (This journalist was in Palo Alto, United States, at the invitation of HP)
(The writer was in Palo Alto, US, at the invitation of HP)