๐Ÿ† Ilia Polushkin on AI's Role in Security

How everyday AI tools give anyone to ability to exploit critical infrastructure

๐ŸŒต The Intersection of Crypto & AI ๐ŸŒต

EthCC

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Weekend News

๐ŸŸ  There was very little news over the weekend as most projects are preparing for a huge week in Brussels! Posting this here as Proof of Attendance ๐Ÿ‘Š๐Ÿป

(Donโ€™t judge, we rolled off the 16 hour flight and went straight to the conference)

๐ŸŽง Sound Bites - EthCC Edition

Yesterday we attended the Open AGI Summit in Brussels, Belgium and got the chance to speak to many of AI x Crypto Founders and listen to a number of panels on open source AI.

The keynote speech was delivered by Ilia Polushskin, the founder of NEAR Protocol, and was one of the most insightful talks we attended.

Iliaโ€™s speech was centered around security, and how the AI tools that we all have access to have the ability to be used maliciously by anyone with technical know-how. Ilia set the scene by highlighting the critical vulnerabilities in our current internet infrastructure, and pointed out that human-written code typically contains 15-70 bugs per 10,000 lines, which, when scaled to large systems like MacOS with 80 million lines of code, potentially translates to millions of exploitable vulnerabilities.

While this information is nothing new, what's particularly alarming is the growing capability of AI systems to identify these vulnerabilities. Ilia demonstrated this by sharing how ChatGPT easily discovered and explained a recently patched bug in Geth that was too recent to be included in the modelโ€™s training data. For context, Geth is the most widely used Ethereum execution client, meaning it handles transactions, deployment, and execution of smart contractsโ€” a critical piece of infrastructure for Ethereum and many other EVM chains that rely on it.

This example shows just how powerful everyday AI tools are, underscoring the potential for AI-assisted exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities for almost anyone who has access to these tools and the technical ability to carry out the exploit.

In response to the growing challenge of security in the age of AI, Ilia proposed a radical solution: rebuilding the internet from the ground up. He envisions entirely new infrastructure based on cryptography and open-source primitives, with blockchains serving as a testing ground due to their inherent need for bug-free smart contracts.

Ilia emphasized the urgency of addressing security, citing other recent security incidents, like the SSH vulnerability, as examples where AI could be used to rapidly identify and exploit bugs like never before. He stressed that open-source development models, with their constant auditing, could play a crucial role in mitigating these risks.

Interestingly, Ilia also touched on NEAR's work on an AI developer tool, capable of translating basic prompts into product stories and subsequently into functional code. This demonstrates the dual nature of AI in this context โ€“ both a potential security risk and a powerful development tool.

Overall, Ilia's presentation served as a wake-up call for the AI and cybersecurity communities. It highlighted the pressing need for innovative solutions to secure our digital infrastructure in an era where AI can be wielded as a powerful tool by both defenders and attackers.

Meme of the Day

Here is one simple trick to beat the Belgian immigration queue: SPRINT OFF THE PLANE.

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